I spy with my little eye...

So about a week ago I found an envelope in my door with a $5 and a note with my last name and apartment number, as well as that of my next door neighbor. I assumed maybe it was something from the management to both of us or something and figured I'd hear from someone at some point about what this was all about. So then last night my neighbor knocked on my door. He is a small, frail, old Chinese man. He had a $10 bill in his had that he was holding out to me. He asked me if I got his envelope. I said, "Oh, that was from you. I don't understand what this is for." He then thrust the $10 towards me, pointed at his eye, and said, "I want to watch you." I pushed the envelope and $5 back at him and locked my door, saying no no no no.

You see, from a few months back I noticed that he be around when I showered. We have adjacent bathroom windows across an air shaft. I had been leaving my window open a crack while I showered to let some steam out. Then when I was done and dressed I'd open the whole window and bam! His face would be there at the crack of his window. It kept happening that he'd be there. I couldn't tell if it was some coincidence that we would be in the bathroom at the same time and didn't want to be a bitch about it. So I just stopped leaving the window open and would wait until I was done to open it. And he'd still be there. And he'd sometimes smile at me. I was creeped out. So just recently I noticed a bit of mold growing on the ceiling of my bathroom. I was thinking that this keeping the window closed option is not going to be a good one. So I tried checking to see if the guy was there the other day and he was! Lights on, face right there, smiling. I slammed the window shut.

And last night it all made sense when knocked on my door.

I called the police this morning and they came to take an incident report. The officer also knocked on the guy's door to talk to him but he wouldn't open his door. I also called the apartment management. They said they will be kicking him out. I asked if anything like this had happened before. They said that a few years ago other residents had reported that an old Chinese man had been watching them. Good god. I left this morning for Seattle and will be here for a few days. I'm relieved to not have to be there at all. To even run into the guy in the hall or by the mailboxes... I mean, if he's lived there for years too who knows how angry he will be that I got him kicked out. Damn. Creepy.