Shopaholic Dies in Avalanche of Clothing...

[jkwest]

clicky

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 back bedroom where she had apparently gone in search of a favourite item.

The eccentric pensioner, who had no known family, is thought to have died of dehydration several days earlier on Boxing Day.

Yesterday, neighbours spoke of their shock at the macabre death of Miss Cunnane, a retired BT operator and devout Roman Catholic who attended church services every weekend.

Her closest friend, Roy Moran, 77, said: 'I think it just gave her pleasure to buy things - none of it was really essential. I once asked her how many scarves she had.

She said she thought about 300. I asked her why she needed that many. She said they were all different colours.

'She bought everything. It had been going on over 16 years from when she bought the property.'

Miss Cunnane had enjoyed Christmas dinner with Mr Moran, a retired hospital supplies worker, before returning to her £170,000 bungalow in Heaton Mersey, near Stockport.

Neighbours became concerned when they did not see her for a few days while her car, which was usually piled high with bags and boxes, remained parked outside the bungalow.

She was reported missing on Tuesday after failing to attend a hospital appointment and police officers with sniffer dogs were sent to her home but failed to find her.

An expert search team and environmental health officers were also called in to help and on Wednesday evening her body was finally found buried under the suitcases.

The house was stacked with brand-new umbrellas, candles, ornaments, trinkets, clothes and electrical items, many of them unopened, as well as piles of videotapes.

Mr Moran said his friend would spend hours at branches of Marks & Spencer, John Lewis and Ikea rather than spend evenings at home, which was crammed full but amazingly tidy.

'I went in three times and couldn't find her,' he said.

'There was stuff in every room - it was so bad there were concerns about the police dogs going in.

'There were thousands of videos. When I walked they all fell down. It was a deathtrap, really.

'It took two days with two teams of six policemen putting the stuff from her house into the van. Now, they say they are going to put it all back.'

A neighbour said Miss Cunnane once asked for help in emptying her Rover Metro so it could go in for its MoT - a process which took four hours.

'I don't know how she saw out of the back of it because it was so full of stuff,' she said.

'There were six umbrellas, ornaments, pots, IKEA candle holders and an oil heater which was very heavy.'

She said Miss Cunnane was a deeply private lady who would not even open the door to the postman.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances and the missing person file had been closed.

I can see it now....jwbbud under his media rack...with 400 Blu-rays on top of him...

[STARSCREAM]

Thats just ridiculous. I don't know how people can hoard stuff like this.

[mikejet]

Thank you for providing an excellent article to send to my wife to get rid of her 60 pairs of shoes. I call my wife Imelda Marcos sometimes.

[TheBoss062]

She had a shopping addiction clearly.

Originally Posted by STARSCREAM

Thats just ridiculous. I don't know how people can hoard stuff like this.

Some people get a high off of spending.

[meremortal]

Just posted a comment in another thread on collecting vs. hoarding. I'd imagine most hoarders think they're just very active and attentive collectors. When you get really consumed with collecting a particular thing then it probably becomes part of your identity and your routines are including collecting. It's like the more you acquire, the less satisfied you become because you want more. Little collection gaps here and there may feel like they need to be filled as soon as possible and a lot of people on boards like these seem to freak out when titles go out of print. It's probably no different with compulsive clothes shopping, though I'd imagine most here are less focused on it. A problem with extreme collecting, aside from the obvious like storage space, is people probably place a priority on it over all else. For example, before Kurt Cobain was famous he wrote in his journals that he budgeted buying records as the highest priority over things like food. And I've noticed little things like when the YT talking heads go out shopping they seem to budget their money entirely around movies and then be extremely frugal with other things like buying food and clothes.

[TheBoss062]

Originally Posted by meremortal

Just posted a comment in another thread on collecting vs. hoarding. I'd imagine most hoarders think they're just very active and attentive collectors. When you get really consumed with collecting a particular thing then it probably becomes part of your identity and your routines are including collecting. It's like the more you acquire, the less satisfied you become because you want more. Little collection gaps here and there may feel like they need to be filled as soon as possible and a lot of people on boards like these seem to freak out when titles go out of print. It's probably no different with compulsive clothes shopping, though I'd imagine most here are less focused on it. A problem with extreme collecting, aside from the obvious like storage space, is people probably place a priority on it over all else. For example, before Kurt Cobain was famous he wrote in his journals that he budgeted buying records as the highest priority over things like food. And I've noticed little things like when the YT talking heads go out shopping they seem to budget their money entirely around movies and then be extremely frugal with other things like buying food and clothes.

So that’s where one draws the line on collecting vs. hoarding. If your life becomes unmanageable because of the compulsive desire to shop for things you don’t actually need.

[Monterey Jack]

If you're keeping yourself and your living space neat, clean and organized, and you're not putting off necessities like food and rent to feed your hobby...it ain't hoarding, no matter how much stuff you have.

[Moviefan2k4]

There was a lady in my apartment complex about eight years ago, who hoarded clothes like you wouldn't believe. She would find them in the dumpster, get them dry-cleaned, and then hang them on rods all over her house. I only went in once, and it was like Plastic 101, everything wrapped in it.