Reply #25: harmless, but irritating...

[Lerkfish]

I had a landlord who refused to turn on the heat in the winter. We had to leave our stove open in order not to freeze. I kept going to the apt. manager to complain, whose apartment looked awfully cozy. Turns out another neighbor discovered when he got a whopping electric bill that the manager had electric heaters, and had tapped the neighbor's electric lines.
I called the local govt. offices and found out that the landlord had a long history of being hauled into small claims court for not turning on the heat. What he would do is wait until he was sued before he turned it on. This was in midstate new york, Middletown. The winters are cold there.

finally, after making much noise, he got down there and started the heat. He knocked on my door and told me to get out because I'm a troublemaker. I told him if he guaranteed a return on my deposit, I'd leave within the week. (I'd already made plans to, but he didn't know that).

So, after moving out, I happened to have an acquaintance who worked at an artificial flavor/fragrance factory there. He concocted the foulest smelling stuff imaginable, and put it in a gelatin capsule for me. I put it in the sink trap with a slow drip, so that it would dissolve long before it was rented to some other poor schmuck, but so that no one would ever rent that apt. with the smell.

eventually, the smell would evaporate.