“i’m so gonna blog about this…” -@jason_sch

ok so check this out. a while ago i mentioned that upon exiting my apartment i had a little bump with the local PSB. i just got an update thanks to apartment building gossip. what happened is this:

a few weeks ago i was on my way to 新区 to see some people. on my way out at around 9pm i locked my door, turned the corner and was suddenly face to face with about 10 guys in streetclothes and one smallish woman with a notebook. one of the guys grabbed my arm tightly while giving me his best angry face. immediately after a second guy grabbed my other arm and they threw me into the wall, back first. i sheepishly asked what the hell they were doing, kinda suspecting that they were cops. no response. “你们干吗?” i repeated. nothing but a tightening of the grip. finally the woman said in chinese “he’s just a foreigner. he doesn’t know what’s going on. let him go” which they did. i was then escorted to the elevator as one of them said in heavily accented english “we are very very sorry” and then pushed me in. a little shaken but not knowing what i could really do about any of it, i grabbed a taxi.

the guys next to me were pretty damn shady. in fact any time you saw some really questionable looking guy or girl in the lobby you could be certain they were heading to my floor. when someone did come, they didn’t knock. instead they shouted something helpful like “嘿! 是我!” at which point the door would open a crack and they’d be let in. i don’t know when anyone slept because there was noise coming from the apartment at all hours of the day and night.

so anyway, the next day there was no a sound from the aparment next to mine. their welcome mat was in disarray and stayed that way for 2 days. then finally there started to be noise, but of a much milder sort. since then there’s been low-level construction on and off and there’s no doubt that the previous tenants are long gone.

apparently, as i found out today, the woman on the 5th floor who helps me from time to time knew what was going down before hand. in fact when i moved in i told her something was up w/ their apartment and her advice was to just lock my door and no worry about it. this was 6 months ago. so recently she was informed by the cops that this was happening and had meant to tell me but decided at the last minute not to since it might alert them that something was happening, as though the resulting scuffle in the hallway didn’t.

so here’s the update. they were in fact shady, to the point of dealing heroin out of their apartment. i also learned that if you’ve dealt 50 grams or more, it’s a capital offence. guess how much they allegedly sold? yep. >50g. it makes me wonder about the future of the pot smoker on the 12th floor.

also, on the “i rock” side of things, the PSB apparently had some sort of verbal apology for me that was in addition to the one i recieved the night of. which is cool. because foreign police forces don’t usually give me apoogies for being jerks.

that’s right IDF, i’m still waiting for an apology.