Told myself the weird smells were just old plumbing for three months

I live in an old building in Portland. Smells have always come and gone. But last week I found out the guy next door was cooking meth in his bathroom. The landlord caught him when the fire alarm went off at 3am. Six units had to get aired out. I literally ignored it because I thought it was just mildew from the basement. Has anyone else brushed off something obvious and regretted it later?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_nina7d agoMost Upvoted

My buddy Mark had this weird burning plastic smell coming from his garage for like two months. He kept saying it was probably just his lawnmower engine or something old in there. Turns out his roommate was stripping copper wire in the backyard at night and using the garage to hide the pile of burned insulation. The whole HOA almost got fined because the smell was drifting into the community pool area. Mark said he started parking on the street just to avoid the garage because the smell gave him headaches. Landlord found the stash and evicted the roommate, but Mark still can't open that door without gagging.

the_patricia9d ago

Walked past his door for weeks thinking, "That's a weirdly chemical mildew smell." Turns out my neighbor was basically a one-man Breaking Bad operation, but with worse ventilation. I feel like a total idiot because I actually bought one of those plug-in air fresheners for my own hallway, thinking it was from my bathroom trap.