The Case of the Smokey Vestibule.

Buy me a pipe and call me Sherlock, folks, I’ve solved the mystery. See if you can solve it before I did.

The building in which I live has a vestibule. (If you don’t know what a vestibule is, here are some synonyms courtesy of Microsoft: entrance hall, foyer, entrance, hall. I especially love how entrance hall, entrance, and hall are three different options.) It’s a little entry room into a building. The footprint of my vestibule is about 6 feet by 6 feet and houses the mailboxes and a tiny table for packages. There is the door that leads to the outside world and then there is the lockable door which leads to the hallway which leads to the door of my apartment. So, to get to my living room from the street requires opening three doors and two locks. Anyway, between these first two doors is the vestibule.

Sometimes, as I leave my apartment, the vestibule smells strongly of dense cigarette smoke. The first thought would that the building houses a smoking tenant. Logical. But the hallway doesn’t smell of smoke. Perhaps in the hallway the smoke dissipates more easily than in the vestibule and therefore doesn’t smell. Perhaps. But why is the smoke SO strong in only the vestibule? Wouldn’t the smoking tenant presumably be passing through? While exiting the building, the time between opening each door is brief. And if he or she is smoking on the way into the building, would they not extinguish their cigarettes before coming inside? And, even if they didn’t, wouldn’t the smell at least be faint in the hallway?

What if he or she is lighting the cigarette in the vestibule on their way out of the building to avoid the wind? Possible. But that would be one drag at most and surely the opening of the outside door would be enough of a gush of wind to dissipate one drag’s worth of a cigarette. Maybe four people leave the building at once, and on their way out, they all light cigarettes in the hallway, have a few drags and then leave the building.

What if someone is waiting for a car service and they are standing inside the vestibule so they can see outside to the street but to kill time, they light up a cigarette? I don’t think that’s likely. If you’re going to smoke, wouldn’t you choose to be outside over a tiny unheated enclosed space? I think you would.

Other theories:

Teenagers have found that my vestibule is the safest place for them to smoke without getting caught by their parents.

There are a set of roommates in my building and one smokes and the other doesn’t so the smoking roommate smokes in the vestibule on his or her way in to finish up before going home to the non-smoking roommate.

Some cigarette company is trying to win me back by blowing smoke into my vestibule to entice me. (I haven’t smoked in 41 days.)

It could be all in my head. It could be anything…

Then, a few days ago, I had a major break in the case. On my way home from the subway, a few houses down from my place, I saw my mailman and while his hands expertly sorted the mail for the next delivery, the corner of his mouth expertly held a lit cigarette.

Ah.