Hoarder Lost In Trash Maze Dies

[FC]

An eccentric loner in Britain hoarded so much trash he had to burrow through it to get around his home — then got lost in the maze of tunnels Friday and died of thirst.

 

Human mole Gordon Stewart, 74, had filled his rooms up to the ceiling with 10 years’ worth of garbage and clutter, making it impossible to walk around.

 

The compulsive hoarder is believed to have become disorientated inside the walls of rotting trash and unable to find a way out — then collapsed with dehydration.

 

Neighbors raised the alarm after failing to see him leave his house in Broughton, Bucks, for several days.

 

When cops arrived, the stench from the garbage was so foul they brought in a police diving team equipped with breathing apparatus.

 

It is believed they crawled around the tunnel network until they uncovered Stewart’s body.

 

A neighbor revealed: “A police officer said the interior was piled up with huge mounds of rotting rubbish and there was an elaborate network of tunnels to move around."

 

“They think Stewart may have got lost and died from dehydration.”

 

[BradD]

Just a reminder, as we get older we tend to "save" stuff, just in case we might need it later. I have relatives who have done this to a lesser degree. And I find myself saying "Hmmm, I just might need this later".

 

Keep an eye on yourselves, lads, if you don't need it now you probably aren't going to need it later either. Toss those old magazines and catalogs. Uncle Postal will bring you new ones.

 

Mauser parts...now those we need to hoard. Never mind I can't find anything I need, I know I put it somewhere.

 

Brad

[AzRednek]

When I was a mailman I saw a house like that. Not quite that bad with tunnels but this old lady an Irish immigrant had stuff piled to her ceiling. After she had a fire a neighbor told me she saved all her junk mail, newspapers and empty toilet paper rolls.

[Horsefly]

I read once,not long ago,that of all the junk you have,you'll use 20 percent.Sounds about right to me.I grew up on Red River in the 50's and 60's,15 miles from the nearest town,if you can call it that,and 30 to Gainesville Tex,which had most anything you needed,so every farmer had his junk pile of plumbing stuff,car parts,electrical stuff,and so on.When you ran into a jamb,you'd go to the junk pile and dig out what you need,and if you can't find it,you'd go to the neighbors.I think of those days alot when ,like yesterday,I went 2 miles to Home Depot for 3 #12x1 sheetmetal screws.Some guys had their stuff put up on shelves and stored,and it almost looked like a hardware store.Others just had a actual junk pile out for the whole world to see.You see all these old farm places with their rows of combines,threshers,haybalers,plows,tractors,and old pickups,and you can ask any one of them if this or that is for sale,and you'll hear nearly every time,"No,I reckon not,I may need that one of these days".There's quite a difference in a junk pile and a collection of stuff. Jerry

[FC]

I save parts and some pieces of stuff, and I do use them eventually. My grandpa's farm had lots of junk on the side of a big quanset hut, just like you described. I loved to rummage through there. In the piney area by his house there were a lot of 1920's -1940's cars. I wonder if they're still there? I'd love to see.

[ken98k]

That kind of thing is pretty common arounf here. They call it the "Alaskan way"

I call it filth.

I have several customers I save till the end of the day so I can fumagate my clothing before going home or to another customers house.

[Dr.Hess]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that was not "hoarding" but was mental health disease. I'd guestimate from the two paragraph writeup that it was schizophrenia, but a sever obsessive/compulsive disorder might be in there too. This is another fine example of the excellent "free" medical treatment available in the UK. Uncle O is gonna get that same level of help for all us too.

 

[AzRednek]

Uncle O is gonna get that same level of help for all us too.

 

Kind of worries me being a retired Federal employee. Obama said he wanted the same level of care that Federal employees and Congressman have available to everybody. I worked briefly in the Federal Employees Health Benefits after Clinton arrived and the so-called Hillary Care was being discussed in Congress. The US Office of Personnel Management put pressure on contractors to cut real health benefits like dental and forced many Dr's to work from a RX formulary. Raised out of pocket catastrophic limits and supposedly increased mental benefits to the same level as other medical.

 

The Clinton administration was trying to form Federal employee's health benefits into their model plan available to everybody. They also tried fixing prices by lowering the ceiling on customary and reasonable fees. Not by actually lowering the numbers but by turning a blind eye to insurance co's gerrymandering geographical areas and not keeping up with inflation. During that period malpractice rates climbed as much as 50%, thx to the pretty boy John Edwards type but C&R fees didn't move. The net effect were some Federal HMO contractors dropping out or providing a 3rd rate level of care. Indemnity plans started losing their preferred providers, surgeons and OB/GYN's especially.

 

Federal employee's benefits eventually self corrected but I see it happening all over again. It will spill over into the private sector via Medicare. Medical vendors will deal with smaller profit margins taking care of Obama's flock and Medicare patients and pick up the slack jacking up prices and co-pays to those with the ability to pay.

 

Sorry for the rant!! I get fuming mad reflecting back on what the Democrats did to medical care and worse just thinking about what is coming. Next time you have to wait six weeks to see a specialist or travel into another county or state for surgery, you can thank the Dems!!

[Horsefly]

WELL SAID AZ!!!!

[littlecanoe]

Kenny, I work in Home Health Care. I go into some "interesting" places. It blows me away. I'm convinced that you could take these same people, stick them in a brand new 300K home and it would be business as usual with the same results in 3-6 months. It may be a mental illness as Dr. Hess has stated. It probably is in some cases. My observation would be that some of these people have no other expectation as to what "normal" is and are fully content to exist under conditions that we would see as unacceptable and/or filthy.

 

My dad has always said that soap is cheap and elbow-grease free.

[BradD]

Doc, I think you are pretty much right in your analysis, probably more often the schizophrenic side than OCD, at least for the level of dysfunctionality that these examples provide. I do think we functional OC's tend to hoard our "Mauser parts" but we're getting along and the trails are still pretty wide in our houses, if not our workshops.

 

I've been to bunches of these places, but every once in a while you meet an "accumulator" who is just fine, clean themselves and dress nicely and talk coherently. I think the crap is just their treasures and they love it, don't need it and don't know what it is, they just love it. Worst always seemed to be the Depression kids.

 

My treasures, however, are priceless. Some day they'll be in a yard sale with my kids rolling their eyes. Watch the want ads for yard sales in Hart Flat, CA.

 

See, you need to have clearly defined goals in your junk accumulating, you can't just be reckless.

 

Brad