A gross story. Please don't read unless you're ready to be grossed out.

[Orrex]

My job takes me into people's homes to perform maintenance and installation work on various electronics. Individual jobs will range from five minutes to 40+ hours, depending on what's involved.

Had one today that ran about 2.5 hours, and I mostly knew that before I went in.

However, I was not prepared for what I encountered. When the door opened, I actually gagged and drew back sharply because of the vile stink issuing from within. I made that "oooowhoa-uah!" noise that people make. Being a professional, however, I ventured inside.

The house was hot. All windows closed, all curtains drawn, and no AC on. When I passed the thermostat it said 87, which I'm prepared to accept.

It was an averaged-sized home, and my job required me to check every room, and in every room except one I found MULTIPLE heaps of dog shit. And not chihuahua pellets; I'm talking Doberman heaps of varying freshness. Some had clearly been for several days. And among these heaps were numerous puddles of piss.

The only room without piles of dog shit and piss puddles, in fact, had three large and overflowing litter boxes. I counted two dogs and one cat, so they'd been busy for some time.

The smell was ghastly. And the amazing part is that I met the occupants, four able-bodied people: the customer, his wife, and his parents. All of them just casually sitting around while their technician struggled not to vomit.

Several thoughts: I've done jobs for actual pathological hoarders, and these people aren't that. The home is surprisingly spartan in its furnishings, with very little in the way of garbage and knickknacks scattered about. So how does one let their home get like this, and wouldn't they at least want to clean up a few of the shit piles when company is coming over? For the sake of simple hygiene, if nothing else? Open the fucking windows, at least!

Is there some appropriate course to take in a situation like this? There were no kids in the home, thankfully, or I'd have called CYS from the driveway. But even so, this family is living in an active and significant health hazard; should someone be notified?

I ultimately didn't take any such steps, though I flagged the account in such a way that I won't be sent back to the site.


Now excuse me while I

[True Dough]

1. Glad

there were no horses!

YIKES!

[3catwoman3]

2. The county public health department or animal control...

...seems like a logical place to start.

[Orrex]

3. Do I have a reasonable case to make?

And I wonder if I could submit a claim anonymously.

[Ocelot II]

12. Keeping animals in filthy conditions.

[kimbutgar]

4. I work as a senior move manager and I have encountered this many times in senior homes

Today I worked in a home that was so hoard filled and you couldn’t see the floors. We managed to make the living room where you can sit on the couch and move around. Don’t get me started in the kitchen, and bedrooms. And the garage OWEEEE !I took pictures for a fellow co worker to share with her sister.

[Orrex]

6. I've had a few of those over the years

Some common themes seem to set off the hoarding urge: medical catastrophe, death of a spouse/partner, death of a child, bitter divorce, etc.

One case involved an 85 year old woman who'd broken her back three years before. She could move, but not well. Her partner of 50+ years died suddenly, and the woman had no other surviving friends or family to help her.

The house was a series of trenches in vast heaps of old newspapers, discarded clothes, assorted boxes, cast off food, and the like. I could hear things moving within the mounds, and I saw a plastic rack of bread loaves that had converted en masse to penicillin. But by this point she was physically incapable of addressing the problem.

I don't fault her, but I don't even know how to begin to help someone with whom I have no real connection or contact.

[kimbutgar]

9. Yes I have also encountered that in my job,

It took me 1 1/2 years going weekly working with a hoarder. 3-4 hours weekly. May 1st I got her moved into a senior community and A few weeks later I sorted more trash and donations and the next day the hauler came and we cleared out her house. I took pictures for her to see the empty house. She was so relieved.

[Orrex]

10. That's very kind and honorable work

You're performing an amazing service.

[kimbutgar]

11. It is something to see them in their new living situations and happy and less stressed.

[Figarosmom]

5. Should be reported to board of health

Evidently they don't know any better and need intervention.

[Ocelot II]

7. You might contact your city's health department?

Out of curiosity I checked my city's ordinances, and found one that requires the disposal of animal feces (not limited to outdoors) and another that requires animals to be given adequate care. They aren't hoarders, but they are arguably mistreating their pets by not keeping their surroundings clean. They might also be attracting vermin.

[Orrex]

8. That's an interesting approach.

Thanks.

[gay texan]

13. Can do one better

In house TV repair.

House stunk. Roaches everywhere. Found the Zenith console TV dead. Pulled the back off, shined the flashlight and was hit with smell of rotting meat. A mouse had got across the 120 volt input and fried itself.

Pulled the dead mouse and replaced a 100uF capacitor and the set fired up. He couldn't pay at tge moment but come around in the evening for pay.

We did and when we went in, it was meal time. They were brushing roaches off of their plate as they ate.

Yeah...

[Orrex]

14. Wow. Yeah, that's worse.

Years ago I got roped into helping three blind people pack up for a cross-country move by bus. It was a disaster from start to finish, not least because I'd never met them before bumping into them at Walmart, where they begged me to assist.

The apartment had a smell similar to today's house. At one point I picked up a large overnight bag, about one foot wide by two feet, and its entire footprint was covered with roaches. When they scattered, I could hear them on the hard tile.

I'm not particularly bug-squeamish, but that made me reel a bit.

[TommyT139]

15. Before reporting them

...perhaps contact an office that won't get them evicted if they are renters. That could likely split up the family or cause some to be homeless -- especially with the cuts to medicaid & medicare coming.

That's going by your report, which I read as none of the parents seeming mistreated, animals unfed, etc.

[Orrex]

16. That's a great point

Through conversation I learned that they rent the home from my customer's aunt, so there might be family dynamics that I don't see.

And, in truth, other than the state of the place, everyone seems healthy, and the dogs and cat don't seem to be mistreated at all.

[TommyT139]

17. That a very useful observation.

It sounds like -- as gross as anyone else might perceive it to be -- they are just at a far end of the bell curve, in a country where families still get to live how they want, as long as no beings are in danger.

[FoxNewsSucks]

18. I agree with post 15

although, I don't think you'd have been out of line to call the job off. Anything that bad could easily be bad for you also, airborne bacteria, bugs, etc.

They need some counseling or something, if there's no physical reason for the neglect.

[pansypoo53219]

19. i have been doing estate sales for years. i finally did a dog hoarder house. carpet removed + still it reeked. no shit

piles left. i am a barefooter + the floors felt weird. then i did a cat hoard house W/ CARPET. it feered slightly less. the carpet felt weird. i did buy a stinky framed primitive cat. it lived in a garbage bag w/ ground coffee formonths + it looks great in the kitchen.

[usonian]

20. A renter of my grandmother's ground floor apartment left dog mess.

It must be all too common.

One should distinguish dirty from hoarding.

Psychology Today describes hoarding disorder.

The cause of hoarding disorder has yet to be identified, although there are known risk factors. People who experience a traumatic event, have difficulty making decisions, or have a family member who hoards are at higher risk of developing the disorder. The majority of people with hoarding disorder also suffer some type of depressive or anxiety disorder.

The tendency to hoard often begins in adolescence and worsens as a person gets older.

Hoarding disorder is viewed as a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and many OCD disorders are closely linked to anxiety. None of the symptoms of hoarding disorder is due to any other mental health condition or medical problem. One study found that among the reasons people reported for their hoarding, avoiding waste was the most common.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/hoarding-disorder


OH! About those repairs.
If at all possible: "I need to take this to the shop to repair it"
Even if it's a refrigerator, what the heck.

[Oeditpus Rex]

21. An ex-girlfriend did pretty much the same thing

but with cats. I guess she took them in and didn't have them spayed/neutered, but all told, she had more than 50 (not all at once; that includes the several she'd buried in her back yard). There was cat shit in just about every corner of the house.

A neighbor called animal control, which led to a hazmat team, which led to her losing the house and moving in with her mother.

This all happened after her husband died, so maybe that had a weird effect on her mental/emotional health.