I got home a little while ago and noticed that my neighbor (the Steelers fan) had taped the bottom of his apartment door with masking tape as seen in the picture below:
This is the second time that I’ve seen his door taped in this fashion, and I have no idea why.
My first thought is that he’s doing something inside and doesn’t want the smell to get into the hallway (e.g. cigar, wacky tobacky, etc.), but if that were the case, the door would be taped from the inside and I would never know about it.
Since the door is taped from the outside and the tape left in the hallway, it’s safe to say he did the taping on his way out and is not home. With that in mind, he could be using a pest-control fogger, but I doubt it since we don’t have pest problems in this building, and the management company would hire an exterminator and there’d be signs posted (in case someone had to run in to get a manuscript).
It’s probably not to stop a draft because he could just get a draft guard that are advertised on TV all the time. If it were draft related, I’m sure I’d see the door taped more often.
Maybe it’s part of some elaborate booby trap? Maybe it’s a “tell” to see if someone entered the apartment while he was out, but I’m sure there are less conspicuous ways to do that. Maybe he has someone tied up in there and this is one last way to prevent them from escaping?
Does anyone have any ideas? I’m completely flummoxed.
I really need to ask him about this next time I bump into him.
