Apartment residents launch 'memo relay' to bust elusive smoker

By Chyung Eun-ju

Residents in a low-rise apartment building have started a relay post to track down a public enemy ― a chain smoker inside the smoke-free building.

The relay started when a resident on the fifth floor of the building in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, left a memo in the elevator on Tuesday.

The initial complaint targeted a certain suite with the message:

“Dear unit no. 403, please don’t smoke in your bathroom. Every time I go into the bathroom at my home I feel like puking because of the smell.”

In response, the suite 403 resident said in another note in the elevator, “I do not smoke. I had previously posted a note saying that I was suffering from mysterious cigarette smoking odor, but someone had taken the note down after three days.

“I also feel like puking because of the smoke smell.”

A resident from unit no. 303 then posted a note reading, “I also smell smoke from my apartment.”

Under the law, smoking is banned in collective residences’ stairways, corridors and elevators.

But smoking at home is not regulated, leaving neighbors vulnerable.