I have recently had problems with teens hanging out smoking weed in the gangway immediately outside the back door to my apartment. There is a breezway along one side of my 22-unit building which is open except for the section by my back door, which lies in a covered section of the gangway between two gangway doors.
I have talked to the kids politely, to no effect. I also called the police, equally in vain The kids must have been watching out the gangway door and saw the cops coming, and ran back into the gangway, up the back porch stairs and into the apartment where one of them lives. The police walked up those back porch stairs to check it out, but of course found nobody there and could do nothing, legally.
One of these kids lives in the building, and they are gangbangers, most likely, so probably talking to the parents who live there would not be a good idea if I want to stay here, and I do want to stay here. I have no problem with kids smoking weed, as I did enough of it in my youth, but it is just WRONG for them to be doing it within feet of my door--especially if my girlfriend is home alone. And who knows what silly ideas they might get about breaking in when we are not home (though the door itself is alarmed for entry).
Yesterday I heard the kids out there smoking dope again, and I got what I thought was a good idea: I took a smoke alarm and held it up to the door and pressed the test button. The alarm went off, and the kids immediately vacated the gangway area outside my door. I laughed! I hope it scared the f*ck out of them, but given that they are teens, it's likely they didn't get the message--not to mention that they MUST have known the police came up there looking for them that one time.
Is there some kind of proximity or "anti-loitering" detector that I could mount inside my apartment/on the inside of this door, that would chirp a couple of times when someone passes through the gangway and past my door, and only activate if someone stays in the area outside my door for a defined amount of time? And then (important when we are not home) shut off after a set amount of time? Is this too much to ask? Probably.
Such a device would have to "see through" the door, most likely by induction, but I am open to any ideas. The door is metal, btw, which I know might be an issue, but I could probably rig up something ungrounded between the gangway and the inside of my apartment. Placing a device in the gangway itself is not an option, because of the landlord and because the kids would just rip it off of the ceiling or wall. The enclosed area of the gangway outside my door measures about 15x7x5 feet so the kids are never more than, say, six feet from the door.
Thanks for any replies to this. I apologize for Googleposting but I have my excuses.
Cheers!
Nicko