The Junkluggers Nastiest Jobs: A Series Not for the Faint of Heart
One of our nastiest jobs…
East Fishkill, NY – This was, according to the luggers that worked it, the absolute worst. The home owner no longer had running water or electricity. It was the height of summer with degrees reaching into the 90’s every grueling day they had to endure in the condemned space. And there were cats, lots of them. Everywhere you looked there they were, of all sizes and colors, although there were no litter boxes. For a moment they thought she had wall to wall brown carpeting, sadly no, the whole house was one big litter box. The homeowner herself had resorted to using plastic grocery bags as a toilet and simply tying them shut and throwing them into the basement. Out of sight out of mind I guess but certainly not out of smell. The smell carried down the street, it hit you like a wall as you approached the house. The house itself was set back away from the street, thankfully away from other houses otherwise the complaints may have come sooner. The guys knew they were in for something bad when in big bold letters in the notes for the appointment it says “BRING MASKS” but they could not have even predicted what they were walking into.
Our fearless luggers, Tommy and Matt looked at each other and exchanged no words, just a nod of acknowledgement that it would take a brave crew to do it, and it had to be them. It was silent, only the sound of decaying wall paper slowly peeling off the wall in what used to be a living room. Tommy was the first to break the silence. Before placing the facemask that was hanging around his neck, over his mouth, he winked at Matt and said “Cover me, I’m going in.”
If you can imagine the worst possible situation, it was 10 times worse than that. The ceilings and floors were cracked. Each room held more terror then the one before. There was garbage everywhere, barely a path to follow to make it through the house. Moving with trepidation and fear our luggers braved through not even sure where to start. The heat only intensified the stench and the discomfort inside the house. Doors were pinned open. Piles and piles of junk filled each room floor to ceiling. Newspapers delivered daily for 8 years, never picked up, or disposed of from the front door.
This was a house that was being flipped by a real estate agent, so the former owner was thankfully not on site. Four days, ten hours a day, a rescue mission from the local SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), 10 full trucks and a 30 yard dumpster of metal later, and The Junkluggers could close the book on that nasty job.
Stay tuned, more nasty jobs to come…