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Man started fire to burn bugs in 'deplorable' apartment, report states A man pulled from a fire on Sunday night told authorities that he started the blaze accidentally — while trying to burn the bugs in his apartment, the Orlando Police Department said. Orlando police and fire crews were called to the fire at an apartment building on Lakeview Street, near Lake Concord just north of downtown Orlando, about 11:30 p.m. The man was rescued from his burning apartment and taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center to be treated for smoke inhalation, according to Orlando police. An officer who checked...

Sticky Situation (Part Two!): Wisc. Capitol Cleaning Crews Struggle to Remove Protest Banners, Stickers & Tape Posted on March 7, 2011 at 9:27pm by Meredith Jessup As we reported over the weekend, the clean-up efforts at the Wisconsin State Capitol have begun following weeks of sit-in protests. New video posted to YouTube shows the tedious task Capitol maintenance workers have in carefully removing stickers and tape from the State Capitol’s delicate marble rotunda. While workers struggle to clean up, the protesters’ signs, banners and papers taped to the walls have reportedly been cataloged and preserved by the Wisconsin Historical Society....

Attention, pack rats: science may have figured you out. Researchers say they've found an area of the brain that seems to govern the urge to collect. For most people, collecting is a perfectly healthy behavior. It's an outlet for expressing passion for just about anything, such as stamps, wine, art, shoes, or Elvis memorabilia. Collecting is also common among animals, and not just for food. It's been observed in creatures great and small, from mammals to insects. For instance, some birds can't resist aluminum and bright objects, while hamsters gather glass beads when given the chance. But in rare cases,...

Second sad story about abused dogs in the state.

52 cats and one dog were removed from the home of a 76 year old Elkhart woman Tuesday by Elkhart Police Department's animal control officer and Humane Society workers. Elkhart Humane Society Assistant Director Rachel Dennis says the cats and dog are all in poor health, suffering from respiratory problems, matted eyes and infested with insects. Adult Protective Services was called to assist the 76 year old woman who was living in the feces covered trailer. The woman is now living with a family member. Elkhart Police say a maintenance worker at Four Season Trailer Park flagged down an animal...

SPCA Officials Stunned After 2 Feet Of Feces Found In Room Of House Located In Million-Dollar Community Officers Say It's One Of The Worst Cases Ever Reported Reporting Sean Hennessey CHESTER TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) ― One New Jersey SPCA official said it was probably the worst case he's ever seen.

VALRICO — It took 15 minutes to get through the front door of a $300,000 house. Investigators used broomsticks and mop handles to push away debris. From inside a gated Valrico community, they removed a frail older woman and some of her cats — eight dead and 15 alive. Hillsborough County Animal Services said both the woman and the cats appeared neglected. The Department of Children and Families was summoned, to see whether 74-year-old Alice Santy, a woman who showed signs of hoarding, needed help. Now, the Sheriff's Office is investigating to see how Mrs. Santy, who is married, came...

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. -snip-

A spinster who obsessively hoarded clothes died in her home after a mountain of suitcases fell on her, burying her alive. Joan Cunnane, 77, owned 300 scarves as well as thousands of trinkets and valuables. They took up so much space in her bungalow that she had only a 2ft-wide path to get around them, and her car and garage were packed with other goods. After she was reported missing earlier this week, it took police searching her home two days to sift through her possessions. Miss Cunnane was eventually found buried under a 3ft pile of cases in a...

AMSTERDAM, Ohio -- Deputies found garbage wall to wall inside the Amsterdam home and now one parent is facing charges. The 10-year-old girl and 6-year-old boy are in the care of a foster parent tonight and the father is facing a charge of child endangerment. Sheriff Fred Abdalla said me he did not arrest the mother because she is pregnant with the couples third child.

A woman in Shelton, Wash., who was reported missing by her husband, was found dead under piles of clutter in their home, where she suffocated to death, according to police. Shelton Police Chief Terry Davenport said the home was so cluttered that police officers' heads touched the ceiling as they climbed over the clutter. Authorities found the body of 62-year-old Marie Rose buried under clothes after 10 hours of searching. She reportedly suffered from a condition known as hoarding. Rose's husband believes she fell while looking for the phone in the house this week and suffocated. There were so many...

y father never had much use for fairy tales. The fifth of five brothers raised in a one-bedroom tenement on the Lower East Side, he preferred real-life grotesqueries. And so at bedtime, I would listen raptly to his urban horror stories, tales that filled the dark with chimera, bogeymen, golems.The most macabre was the tale of the Collyer Brothers, the hermit hoarders of Harlem. In lugubrious tones not unlike Boris Karloff's, my father described the vague aura of evil that had endowed the four-story brownstone on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 128th Street for much of the 1930's...