Living in an apartment building means occasionally dealing with awkward encounters in close quarters, but the resident in this story says repeated elevator rides with a particularly smelly neighbor pushed him past his breaking point.

The man explained that he had crossed paths with the woman multiple times in the building, and each encounter came with what he described as an overwhelmingly bad odor. According to him, the smell was so strong that he started actively avoiding elevators and hallways whenever he saw her approaching.

Eventually, however, he found himself trapped in an elevator ride with her and says he simply couldn’t handle it anymore. After the doors closed and the smell hit him again, he muttered that she “stunk” loud enough for her to hear.

Things became even more awkward afterward when he later saw the neighbor pointing him out to another man as “the person who said she stunk,” while giving him what he described as an extremely hostile look.

Now he is wondering if he was out of line for what he said. Read on to get the full story and see what you think.

AITA For Saying My Neighbor Stunk?

She reeks.

This sounds revolting.

I’ve encountered this woman on the elevator multiple times. The first time, my mouth breathing instinct kicked in so fast I could barely process. Wow, what a smell!

The second time, I saw her coming and immediately exited the elevator lobby and went to the other. Got the same whiff when I walked past her.

Wow, that was mean.

I openly avoided her each time I saw her. One morning, she walked up behind me, blocking the lobby exit, so I was stuck.

As soon as the door closed, there it was. Much less pungent, but still strong. I couldn’t take it anymore and muttered that she stunk! Nothing else was said.

Oh, the smell of a cat can be very offensive.

It’s very clear that she doesn’t air out her apartment often or wash her clothes. Our units have a W/D in them, so not sure why she doesn’t use them.

She has a very cute cat that she lets into the hallway. It’s the cat’s smell that’s permeating her attire.

So, you know that she heard him and was offended.

I saw her last night and this morning with some guy. She loudly whispered that I was the person who said she stunk.

He looked at me. An odd blank look. Not threatening. Just blank.

In addition to being smelly, she is also kind of weird.

She gave me this wicked look 😂 The kind that would make you question your safety if you cared.

I was amused. I mean, I **did** say it. At least she doesn’t stink anymore! She should be grateful /s.

AITA?

It isn’t so much that he told her, but how he did it. If he wanted to have that awkward conversation, he should have done it more kindly, not just blurting it out.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a third-generation business owner who is thinking he might know the people in his community a bit too well.

Check out what the people in the comments have to say about this situation.

He wasn’t being kind; he was being cruel.

There are ways to approach this, but he went with the wrong one.

He doesn’t know this woman or her situation.

This is just not something you do.

This commenter says it was very tacky.

It was more about how he said it than what he said. There are ways to deal with this awkward situation that aren’t hurtful, and he didn’t go that route.

Honestly, he isn’t close to her, so why say anything at all? He would be much better off just avoiding her to the extent possible.