Posted on 01/27/2004 3:09:25 PM PST by presidio9
Police in Berlin were called in to deal with a man who has neglected to take a bath or shave for the past 18 years, according to press reports today.
The self-styled urban hermit, identified only as Mario, also professed to not having changed his clothes since New Year's Day 2001.
Investigating officers, who said they had no reason to doubt Mario's claims about his personal hygiene, were summoned after a chimneysweep reported discovering a "caveman" living in an abandoned apartment.
The chimneysweep was trying to determine the source of smoke blockage in a flue when he came across the squatter, who had been using a blocked-off fireplace to keep warm.
"I saw what I thought was a pile of dirty laundry in a corner until I realised it was an incredibly filthy man," the sweep told police.
"When we got there we found the subject as described," officer Toralf Reinhardt told one Berlin newspaper. "He was cowering and shivering with fear like a cornered animal. It was like entering some wild creature's burrow. The stench was over-powering."
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After spending a night in a police cell, Mario was placed in a hospital for medical observation.
"We had to call in a team of industrial cleaners to get the odour out of the police car and the cell afterward," Reinhardt said.
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