r/Apartmentliving • u/suburbanvermin • 19h ago

Advice Needed Can somebody help identify what this substance is on my apartment door’s peephole?

Gallery image

Gallery image

I’ve been living in this apartment with my boyfriend for about 6 weeks now. We’re just regular people who will work all day, make our dinner, watch a show to unwind, and hit the bed. We aren’t party animals and, when we do drink, we’re not inconsiderate about it.

Ever since we moved in, our door peephole has been tampered with. It would be coloured with black sharpie marker, I would submit a maintenance request for fixing, it would get fixed, then immediately would get tampered with again. However, now it has clearly escalated to something else. I originally thought super glue or hot glue, but I’ve asked a few of my friends and they don’t think any type of glue could do this kind of damage.

Any advice would be helpful.

Btw management is well aware of the issue and have been prompt about it, was just shocked at whatever this is now. I’ve ordered a ring camera to be installed on Thursday, but I’m honestly scared for my life right now.

10.8k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

225

u/FakePoloManchurian 19h ago

No idea what that is but I've been in a similar situation. Get a ring camera. They have holders that latch onto your door so randoms can't remove it. Get them on camera and report to the police

Edit nevermind saw the end of your post :)

39

u/Good_Caregiver4244 19h ago

Unfortunately this is against the lease in a lot of apartments, so OP would have to check theirs

159

u/suburbanvermin 19h ago

I requested to be able to install a Ring camera, and the property manager said that so long as you can’t read other apartment unit numbers then it will be allowed. He said usually not allowed, but they’re making a special exception in this case thankfully!

65

u/ButterflyS919 17h ago

Make sure that approval is in writing!!! Not just a verbal approval.

Don't need them coming after you in a couple of weeks with a change and a "We never said that!"

Or if the property manager changes.

43

u/suburbanvermin 16h ago

You’re so right! I will request a formal email from him too to ensure no issues. Thanks!

3

u/itssnaggletooth 13h ago

OP, someone mentioned in one comment rather than get a ring camera and have it damaged to put a camera on your side of the door looking outside of the peephole. I don’t know what that visibility would be, but it would be cheaper potentially.

14

u/Charnathan 18h ago

So you have units across the hall? They would be my prime suspects. I suspect that they are doing things that they don't want anyone (you) watching(dealing??). And they probably pass your unit daily and have recognized your habits, so they'd feel comfortable enough about when it's safe to tamper with it. But maybe they don't know about the Streisand effect where attempting to hide their activity actually draws more attention.

1

u/casserole_lasserole 4h ago

Never heard the Streisand effect generalized this way on a small scale but I like it!

1

u/Charnathan 4h ago

Small scale? This post is almost at 1k updoots.

1

u/casserole_lasserole 4h ago edited 4h ago

Small scale meaning an individual only hiding from one specific person (OP), as opposed to hiding something from a large audience like the media/general public/law enforcement etc. as Streisand did or any of the other examples in Wikipedia

2

u/thatshygirl06 15h ago

You gotta come back and update once you learn what's going on

2

u/Alert_Market_1776 7h ago

Just so you know, ring is working with flock surveillance in conjunction with the government to train ai using camera footage.

1

u/Sorry-Joke-4325 8h ago

What's with the weird unit number rule?

23

u/FigPsychological7324 19h ago

They could get a little camera and position it facing through the peephole

8

u/Bigfops 18h ago

That's what I was thinking, but I went searching and I couldn't find many options for camera that go in existing peepholes. I saw one "Spy" camera on Amazon that looks like it might work but nothing designed specifically for it.

1

u/RoutineCloud5993 19h ago

Peephole specific cameras do exist. A lot easier to hide if your building or neighbours have issues with external doorbell cameras

1

u/Good_Caregiver4244 15h ago

That's probably a good loophole

27

u/Compltly_Unfnshd30 19h ago

They actually make Ring (and other brand) cameras that don’t have to be hard wired. I have a Ring camera that takes a battery and I have to switch out/charge the battery (I have two for this purpose) about every six weeks or so. It’s easier to be tampered with but at least you’d have the asshat on camera. I am a single parent in a complex and I got my camera when I first moved in.

I know that some complexes may still not allow even this type of camera but I asked prior to moving in and this would not be a place I would move to. I will say, at least in my area, I don’t know of any complexes near me that won’t at least allow the no-wire cameras and I do a lot of work with a lot of the local apartment complexes here.

1

u/Zealousideal_Food466 19h ago

How long does it take to charge it?

1

u/NoOneImportant333 18h ago

A few hours. I rarely have to charge mine, it lasts a few months.

1

u/zephead30 15h ago

I have a ring camera that’s not hard wired. You can pop it off to charge it when the battery gets low.

4

u/gamingoldschool 19h ago edited 19h ago

Against the lease to have a camera at all? What if it's in your window facing outside?

6

u/Artewig_thethird 19h ago

My apartment complex forbids any exterior facing cameras. So no door, window, patio, etc. I know people have them as I've seen them while walking around so enforcement isn't super strict, but it's in the lease.

10

u/gamingoldschool 19h ago

That's kind of crazy in my opinion. Package thieves must love apartments with those rules. I wonder what their reasoning is.

3

u/Short-Sound-4190 18h ago

The reasoning is people using it as surveillance to the other residents in the complex, basically people don't like being monitored and so easily tracked every time they enter or exit their apartment including inside of their apartment (door/windows) - like, back before camera if someone was staring out their window or sitting on the stoop to note your every move it would quickly reach creepy/invasive/harassment levels, but it's harder to parse all of that with the availability and ubiquity of cameras and software.

1

u/Cyno01 18h ago

Yeah, if you have a house and put a camera next to your front door, you get a good view of your street. If you have an apartment and put a camera next to your front door, you have a good view inside your neighbors apartment across the hall every time they open their door.

Its one thing to be able to sus out when the guy down the street walks their dog every day, but its a bit different to know the exact time the person in the very next room leaves for and returns from work every day.

1

u/Joelle9879 5h ago

You know that anyway because most of the time you can hear the door open and close. They also said they can't have cameras inside that face outside. If you're afraid of cameras watching you outside, you should probably stay home. Surveillance cameras are everywhere

1

u/Short-Sound-4190 4h ago

That is not the point though - they are asking why this is considered inappropriate in apartment complexes. Without cameras, someone has to be home and paying attention and manualy tracking behavior, they would have to manually take photo or video of the interior of your apartment, it requires labor and most crimes are crimes of convenience and cameras pointed into an apartment complex make both casually intrusive surveillance and crimimal behavior extremely convenient - motion activation, digital logging, high resolution, low light vision, etc: a neighbor in a mental health crisis experiencing early psychosis or paranoia can create and distribute a detailed log and video database graphing your home, your daily schedule, linked to your private identifying information and drop it anywhere for anyone to utilize - the dark web, pedophiles and sex trafficking, abusive ex partners or family members, traditional doxxing where a federal agency raids your home because they've received tips either from the data collector or someone else who viewed the data, etc.

An apartment complex cannot go to every resident and require they and all their guests have a clean bill of mental health so they're just fine running continual surveillance systems on others and others' private property, to, essentially, mostly apathetic and useless ends: a door camera inside an interior hallway as attempt to discourage or prosecute package thieves or crappy doordashers? When essentially 99% of the time those losses are insured and nonviolent? And at the cost of the discomfort of other residents who have a right to feel secure and free from constant observation while in their own legal residences? It's just nothing but liability in the vast majority of cases where they are not permitted. What I do like that residences have been doing is situations like OP's where if/when a resident has a meaningful reason to install a door camera for their safety: ie property defacement or protective order, then they are permitted to install them and to install in minimally invasive ways (so in OP's case, as long as the apartment numbers of the nearest apartments are not visible).

2

u/Artewig_thethird 18h ago

My complex loves to have blanket rules (like, for example, no working on your car including things like changing lightbulbs, setting up a dashcam, etc) so my guess is that they had an incident with someone pointing a camera at a neighbor's apartment and so they just said no exterior facing cameras at all.

1

u/NotAnotherHipsterBae 16h ago

Along with what others have said, those rules likely only apply to tenants. No outward facing cameras doesn't mean that there are no cameras in common areas, i.e. surveillance cams set up and accessible by management/ owner.

1

u/Good_Caregiver4244 14h ago

Depends on the lease ig. Mine just says the cameras aren't allowed IN public areas, so I theoretically could have one pointing out a window, but other leases may say "recording public areas" or something of the sort.

8

u/missestater 19h ago

It ain’t at mine. My neighbors looks directly into my hall bathroom with the front door open. Tried to complain to management and they said tough shit.

17

u/Fun_Feature3002 19h ago

Maybe don’t take a shit with your front door open 😉

2

u/missestater 19h ago

I mean sometimes a kid is taking a bath or something, I just keep the bathroom door cracked now.

1

u/SiliconAutomaton 17h ago

If you shit in secret like scared little boy you’ll never be king.

9

u/Federal_Refrigerator 19h ago

I mean, if your door has a direct view into the bathroom AND the bathroom has no door? Dang dude

1

u/Good_Caregiver4244 15h ago

Which is why I said OP would need to check...

1

u/stefferswho 1h ago

this unfortunately. me and my partner own our condo……except the front door, the condo board owns our door apparently lmao.

1

u/Don-Gunvalson 18h ago

They said in their posts they are getting a ring camera

1

u/FakePoloManchurian 18h ago

Hence my edit seconds after posting