Basement X

So.. for the last 3 days I've smelled something horrendous outside my front door.

We have had a huge heatwave here in the midwest, like everyone else in the world it sounds like, and in my town we've had less than 1 inch of rain in almost 2 weeks. Northern part of the state keeps getting storms. It's bad enough the grass outside of my door is almost 50% brown and dead.

Last year, they allowed dogs in my complex, and so in the spot of yard in my courtyard they put one of those doggie bag dispensers/wastecans for people to pick up after their dog. I'd noticed it was full of regular trash the last few days, since its August and nearly everyone around me is moving out, and moving in. I figured that's where the smell was coming from.

Turns out, as I went to get the mail, I realized it was only around my complex. Apparently, some days ago, someone tossed some hamburgers into my grill and closed the lid. And in the multiple days of 98 degrees F average heat, well.. I found the source of the smell.

I've spent the majority of the evening scrubbing my grill in the dark, cleaning up my entire porch area, and using everything from soap and water, bathroom cleaner, kitchen cleaner, and even bleach to wipe the thing down inside and out, along with splashing on the porch (minus the bleach to try and save some of the grass). The smell.. is pretty horrendous.

Went and bought 3 pounds of Baking Powder Soda, and emptied 1 pound on the ground and in the grill, with more soap/water/bleach into it, and about 1/3 a pound out around again, and left the remaining 2 pounds open to sit outside. That idea came from my mother, who said it might take up to 2-3 days to get rid of the smell.


I just needed to vent. Badly. No clue who it could've been as everyone's movin in or out, and around here people get drunk and wander from building to building as is. There are 6 buildings in my complex so who knows. I don't care.. I just want the smell gone. I'm pretty much ready to pitch the grill by tomorrow.

Happy Saturday.

Oh Eddie, I'm sorry you were the unlucky grill guy. >.< I live pretty close to the bar in town and I've seen/heard some stupid shit but I think the burger sauna is horrifying. Time to start booby trapping your porch.

Well there's not much one can do. It's not like I consider it a prank, so much as someone being dumb and drunk and just not realizing it. Unless it was someone new who while grilling tossed it there, which I doubt.

So after further deliberation and consultating my father, purchaser of said grill, his first reaction was "just go throw it away" and that if that didn't fix it soon to call him again, and hit up the landlords to see if it's something else.

The grill was cheap, since he bought it at a garage sale, still in the box, for $25, so it's not a huge loss, and I used it for 2 years.

And if we need one, my cousin is bringing his new, slightly used one down in about 2 days anyways. So no issue there. I'm not mad, I just want the smell gone.

Emptied the remainder of the baking soda on the porch today... It wasn't so bad at some points, but it's definitely only around my porch, unless the overhang above me reeks too, OR is the actual cause of it. Which I kind of doubt, but still. They'd have to have set meat on their porch, or let a dead cat just sit there for it to be this bad.

All this from some tiny little hamburgers.

That sucks Ed, sorry to hear that. It's always frustrating when someone tosses their crap onto your doorstep without even thinking about it, worse still when they do it repeatedly and don't care.

At the very least you managed to clean it out and try to make it liveable again. But your dad is right, keep the situation in your mind and if it happens again, report it to your landord. Anything that happens twice or more isn't a random accident. It means there is some prick within your vicinity who is purposely doing it.

Yeah, I'm not too keen on letting something like that happen again, but I doubt it'll be as doable this go around. I'm sure we'll figure something out for this possible new one, even if it means locking the top down.

My grill went down to the dumpster yesterday, and swept up the pounds of baking soda this morning, and when I took the dustpan to the dumpster, the grill was already gone. Being August, tons of furniture and trash is being taken out since people are moving left and right, so I'm guessing some scrappers managed to nab it early today. I hope it doesn't manage to stink up the truck or van of whoever took it.

Last I knew most of the smell was gone this morning, but of course it's not that hot out yet so who knows.

Hopefully the stench will be gone. My condolences on the major inconvenience and strife that has occured because of some idiot(s) carelessness.

It subsided for awhile.. but now I'm wondering if it's not coming from one of the neighbors... specifically the one to my right, where we have a small divider seperating our porches. I think they moved out sometime last week, and left some stuff on their porch because I'm still smelling it in places. So I put in a complaint to the office after I bumped into our maitanence guy the other day and asked him. Either way, my grill still needed to go as I think that was part of it, but I can still smell something else.

Either way, I leave for home for about 5 days tomorrow, so I won't be subjected to it for awhile. Instead I'll have pains of small children yelling. ...Yay....

Tragic, have you tried eliminating the smell where your old grill was with spray? Pine Sol or something similar?

It would have pretty much left had it been primarily my grill, which it mostly has. I'm thinking tho that it's mostly something caused by the neighbors now. As far as spray goes, I have almost nothing, though I was very close to putting down some bleach on the ground to help with that.

So that's where I left my burger?

I knew it was someone close.. but I never realized how familiar that dagger in my back was!