Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 09:53:03 -0500 From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu> To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> Subject: [WSFA] Re: Paper Weights Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> >strongl at sddc.army.mil 12/31/03 09:44AM > New York (Associated Press) A man who says he sells books and >magazines on the street was rescued after being trapped for 2 days under = a >mountain of reading material in his apartment. > Patrice Moore, 43, had apparently been standing up when the books, >catalogs, mail and newspapers swamped him on Saturday. Firefighters and >neighbors rescued Moore on Monday afternoon and he was hospitalized in >stable condition Tuesday morning with leg injuries. "I didn't think I = was >gonna get out." Moore told the New York Post, adding that he called for >help repeatedly. His landlord discovered him Monday after coming to the >apartment to give Moore a small loan and heard a strange voice inside. = The >landlord pried the door open with a crowbar, found Moore trapped and = alerted >the fire department. The apartment was stuffed from wall to wall and = floor >to ceiling with stacks of paper. Emergency workers and neighbors dug = thru >the debris to reach Moore, filling 50 garbage bags with paper. He was = freed >about a half hour later. > Moore, a former mailroom clerk now receiving public assistance, = said >he collected books and magazines for more than 10 years and earned = money >by >selling them on the street. The incident recalled the legendary case of = the >Collyer brothers, who in 1947 were discovered dead in their house in = Harlem >after one of them became trapped under a pile of papers and the other = died >of starvation. Hmmm . . . .almost pulped to death . . . mjw