I live in a 3rd floor apartment building with a balcony.
Yesterday, I noticed a small plastic bag or ziplock containing a substance I couldn’t really identify (looked like brown seeds? Maybe drugs or something else?) on our balcony. I assumed the neighbors dropped it from the balcony one floor above us, it was right up against our sliding glass door so I figured it fell between the cracks and ended up there.
I didn’t go outside to pick it up because we currently have a portable AC unit installed on the balcony’s sliding door and everything is sealed. I figured if it’s something important, the neighbors will come knocking on our front door. I don’t know most of our neighbors, people are constantly moving in and out of the building.
Today, I wanted to take another look and… the bag was GONE.
Now, there’s no way it could have been wind because there’s no wind at all at this time of year. There are a few other scraps of debris on our balcony (that probably also fell from the unit above) that didn’t budge – if there was a strong gust of wind they would have been blown away too. Also, the bag was right up against the balcony door with no openings or cracks beneath it.
I’m struggling to figure out what the hell happened. Did someone sneak onto our balcony at night to retrieve that bag? Could someone be targeting our apartment for burglary and using that bag as a test/excuse to case our home?
Also, it doesn’t really make sense. Sneaking onto our balcony from the floor above would be very difficult and require some serious parkour skills. It would be a lot easier from the adjacent balcony – but if it’s the next door neighbors, how would that bag “accidentally” end up here? There’s a thick wall between our balconies.
Obviously, this is making my wife and I incredibly anxious and I’m not sure what to do. I tried knocking on the neighbor’s door one floor above (to ask if they dropped something) but no one answered.
Should I get a camera and point it outside at our balcony (through the glass)? What kind of camera is recommended for that? I’d appreciate any help or advice, thanks.