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Downstairs neighbor is a prostitute/drug dealer has tweakers visiting
Giggles_Funsworth
Blight on DiscourseBay Area SprawlRegistered User regular
Blight on DiscourseBay Area SprawlRegistered User regular
Since me and my girlfriend moved in we've noticed that our downstairs neighbor has a ton of visitors, mostly in the evening, sometimes during the day, rarely the same person. I figure she's either a prostitute or hitting up the Casual Encounters section on Craigslist more than a little, but it's none of my business. We don't really have a view of her apartment, this is just what us and our roommate have noticed coming and going.
Tonight some guy in a van had parked in between the buildings, in between the dumpsters, in a spot that wasn't really a parking spot. I walk up to ask him if he's going to be parked there regularly because it makes the dumpsters we have to use all but inaccessible and I'm friendly about it. Let him know that we live in the unit I just parked under, we need to use the dumpsters and we can't with his van there. He informs me that he meant to park there just for a few but he locked his keys in the car, and he is an obvious tweaker. Gaunt face, multiple facial scabs, talking a mile a minute in a sort of jumbled hard to understand string of words, besides that he looked worn.
As I'm going inside some dude that looks like Merle Dixon from Walking Dead comes out of the apartment announcing loudly how he's gotta help "fucknuts" get his keys out of the car.
What is the best course of action here. As far as I know having a tweaker visit isn't illegal and that's all I've got "proof" of right now. I don't want to do anything direct because if I am dealing with multiple methheads that could get ugly real fast. On the other hand now I am thinking maybe she is more into dealing drugs than sleeping with men for money and I don't want that in my neighborhood, and especially not directly below my apartment and around our car. The apartment itself has a sliding glass door next to the deadboltable door, and the car is parked in an open car port. I don't even want tweakers around but if she wants to invite her tweaker friends over I can't really stop her.
For the most part it is a nice neighborhood. The complexes we share a lot with are lived in, and the rent is cheap, but there's a lot of working class families and one street over is really nice houses. I know bad neighborhoods, I lived in the Bayview (San Francisco) for a little while, and my parents have friends in East LA from when they lived there so that was always a stop when we vacationed as a family. This is not a bad neighborhood this is a bad neighbor.
What can I do in this situation without getting involved in a non-anonymous fashion? If it helps at all we're currently living in San Jose, CA.
Tonight some guy in a van had parked in between the buildings, in between the dumpsters, in a spot that wasn't really a parking spot. I walk up to ask him if he's going to be parked there regularly because it makes the dumpsters we have to use all but inaccessible and I'm friendly about it. Let him know that we live in the unit I just parked under, we need to use the dumpsters and we can't with his van there. He informs me that he meant to park there just for a few but he locked his keys in the car, and he is an obvious tweaker. Gaunt face, multiple facial scabs, talking a mile a minute in a sort of jumbled hard to understand string of words, besides that he looked worn.
As I'm going inside some dude that looks like Merle Dixon from Walking Dead comes out of the apartment announcing loudly how he's gotta help "fucknuts" get his keys out of the car.
What is the best course of action here. As far as I know having a tweaker visit isn't illegal and that's all I've got "proof" of right now. I don't want to do anything direct because if I am dealing with multiple methheads that could get ugly real fast. On the other hand now I am thinking maybe she is more into dealing drugs than sleeping with men for money and I don't want that in my neighborhood, and especially not directly below my apartment and around our car. The apartment itself has a sliding glass door next to the deadboltable door, and the car is parked in an open car port. I don't even want tweakers around but if she wants to invite her tweaker friends over I can't really stop her.
For the most part it is a nice neighborhood. The complexes we share a lot with are lived in, and the rent is cheap, but there's a lot of working class families and one street over is really nice houses. I know bad neighborhoods, I lived in the Bayview (San Francisco) for a little while, and my parents have friends in East LA from when they lived there so that was always a stop when we vacationed as a family. This is not a bad neighborhood this is a bad neighbor.
What can I do in this situation without getting involved in a non-anonymous fashion? If it helps at all we're currently living in San Jose, CA.
Giggles_Funsworth on
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However, to the OP, you've seen one set of meth heads, once. That does not a habit make. Keep an eye out for more, and if it seems to be a common thing, honestly, your best option is probably to move. If your landlord asks why, tell him. But I really wouldn't confront someone who you think has a lot of meth heads in and out of her apartment, and I definitely wouldn't confront any meth heads. That's an excellent way to get fucking murdered.
If they actually are meth heads. Just saying.
I'd say if he's super concerned, call the landlord and say there's been a lot of awfully sketchy traffic coming in and out of her apartment. There's not much that can be done, but at least he's been notified. But yeah, like Thanatos said, don't confront anyone, because if they are actually tweakers, they're not people you want to be messing with. I used to live in Boise during the 90s and meth was HUGE there and I've seen what it does to people and what it can make them do. Not pretty.
Not as of yet, but we've only been here for a month. If this ends up being a continuous thing then yes, it bothers me/us because people on meth are unpredictable and I like to feel safe under my own roof and it would be nice if I felt safe going into my complex's parking lot at night.
If you do call your landlord, wait a week or two so it's not ridiculously obvious who did the calling. Less if something actually happens, but whatever you do, don't speak to them.
We're on a lease that's up in October. Moving isn't really an option right now because this is all we can really afford, rent is damned expensive around here.
Bro as somebody who grew up in an area where meth was a real problem, dealt with methheads before, guy by the dumpsters was tweaking hard. Don't really know about the other guy one way or the other, he was just trashy.
Don't hang around people you think are methheads. You will absolutely get stabbed and shot for your fucking bubblegum, even if you don't have bubblegum. Try to find your way out of the situation if you can. If you're positive they're meth heads I'd be willing to eat the security deposit costs involved because being murdered is no fun.
Once the cops are in the door with the methheads being obvious meth heads as they are it should be easy for the cops to just play connect the dots and take it from there.
Do the police come out if someone is illegally parked? I'm pretty sure you'd just call the complex manager and they'd have the car/van/truck towed.
And IANAL or a cop, but I think unless they see drugs, they're not going to be connecting any dots or making any arrests or entering any apartments.
I don't know how many people you've seen on meth but, uh, it's really obvious and police like to deal with that shit before they murder someone. Because they will.
I live in Portland, Oregon. If I got nervous every time I saw an addict or crazy, I'd be moving every day. And I live in a nice neighborhood.
And without probable cause, acting sketchy isn't going to get anyone in any door. But that's neither here nor there. OP also has witnessed only one person who was acting funny. Like I said, there's a lot of assumptions going on here. Just because someone has people coming and going from their apartment doesn't mean they're a prostitute or running a drug den.
And no, meth does not turn you into a murderous freak by any means. Sure, it'll make you do stupid shit, but most drugs do. I think this is getting a little blown out of proportion. There aren't meth-heads lurking in the parking lot with butcher knifes waiting for the perfect opportunity.
You're thinking of southern Oregon.
Steam
Only the strong can help the weak.
And before anyone goes "You just don't know", I know a fuck of a lot more than you might think. I've been around plenty of methheads from my raver/party days, and none of them were murderers. Shady as fuck maybe, steal a 20 from your wallet to get a fix maybe, but not murderers.
OP: Be vigilant, don't be stupid, keep your doors locked...basically do the stuff you should be doing living in ANY apartment complex, with ANY group of neighbors you know only in passing. You're not going to wake up with a meth head stabbing you to death, I promise. It's just not going to happen.
(And Portland has a serious meth problem, if you don't live here, you don't know...yes it's a pothead city too, as is most of the pacific NW...but it also has a serious meth issue).
I'd call the local police precinct's non-emergency line and ask to speak to the shift officer responsible for patrol in your area. Mention what you've seen. He won't send someone to kick in the door and announce that there have been complaints from the neighbors or anything, but he will probably be able to have the patrol unit in your area swing through the neighborhood every evening for a week or so. A visible police presence in the neighborhood ought to suppress some or all of the illegal activity, but if patrol agrees that it looks like there's something persistently hinky going on in your neighborhood, they'll kick it up the ladder.
OP, call the non-emergency line and just file a report. Suspicious activity. Constant visitors at late hours. Then forget about it. Even if the police only do a few drive bys or walkthroughs at night, it might spook these people into finding a new meeting point or flat out moving. Either way, your only other option is to move out.
Nothing has really happened that indicates anything other than your neighbour hanging out with sketchbags. Be sure not to blow this out of proportion.
Being vigilant is fine. Having people in here posting "DUDE YOU'RE GONNA GET MURDERED BY METH HEADS" is not. It's feeding the OP's paranoia when no one, not even in the OP, really know's what is going on beyond "My downstairs neighbor is shady".
Which I covered in my first post. If you have actual meth cooks below you, that's very bad, because those chemicals can and will seep up in to your apartment. That said, you would notice signs, like a pungent smell and likely tinfoil over the windows. To cook any reasonable amount of meth, you need a pretty crazy setup. You'd also notice them constantly bringing boxes of the materials in the house: Psuedofedrin (Suedofed) and matches for the red phosphorus being the big tells.
It's VERY rare to find meth cooked in apartment complexes these days, way way too easy to get caught, because the signs are crazy obvious.
If they're just making it for personal use they can probably do it in their bathroom.
Even a personal stash would require boxes of Suedofed and a big supply of red phosphorus. It would be pretty easy, especially for the trained eye, to notice.
Call the cops during normal duty hours and file a suspicious activity claim, anonymously if you prefer. The cops may or may not investigate, shit, if you can give them a license plate or a name they might be able to link it to priors.
Details drive policework, just calling in a suspicious activity call probably won't go far, give them something to work with and they're more likely to care/be able to do something.
Not hard to hide boxes in a room with blinds or curtains. Or use a bathroom exhaust fan if you're crafty enough.
I'd still get out of dodge if I didn't feel comfortable in my apartment. Sketchy people are often just as bad as drugs. I'd probably rather deal with the drug addicts personally.
As people making meth?
If this is the only problem you've had in a month, you live above a pretty discreet drug dealer (assuming this even is a drug situation.) You aren't going to be able to do anything (including break your lease) until you have something to report that's actually actionable.
Which is not to say you shouldn't report inappropriate noise, weird smells, etc. But you are jumping to some pretty massive conclusions based on not very much information.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
More than making meth? So they're serial killers?
I can't really follow that train of logic.
I digress, OP, I suggest contacting the police and not doing anything overt to fuck with the neighbors. Most of the time if you leave them alone they'll leave you alone. Just make sure to not leave your car unlocked or valuables in plain sight. They probably won't be mugging or murdering you, but stealing your shit if you're not around is definitely a very real threat with addicts.
This right here is what I'm worried about. I could give a fuck if she has a different dude over every night of the week, but tweakers hanging around means shit getting stolen, and maybe (long shot) our apartment getting broken into (longer shot) while we're in it. I guess I'll just wait and see, and pay closer attention to her visitors from now on, see if there's a trend.
And guys, I know what a person looks like when they're on meth, and what a person looks like when they've been on meth for a long time. Dude last night was the latter, but I didn't know it until I approached him because it was at night in a poorly lit area. I grew up in an area where there was a lot of meth production and use, worked with a long time tweaker at one of my first jobs, dated a girl who used to be into the stuff, and went to more than a few parties where various substances were being consumed when I was younger.
Since it seems like there's a pretty broad consensus over these three points, maybe we could stop muddying up our own answer by looking for ancillary things to disagree about?
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat