Bill Bryan was at a loss for words when he called 911 from his cousin's Sandy Springs home last Monday.
"I cannot describe the mess in this house," Bryan, 51, told the operator. The debris inside the Kitty Hawk Drive residence was so dense that Bryan and his brother-in-law had trouble finding his cousin, Mary Minter.
"We didn't think she was here because the house was so piled up with crap," Bryan said. "But then we took one last look and found her in the bed underneath just mounds of trash."
In some parts of the home the debris reached the ceiling. Minter was unable to move, Bryan said, and it took four firefighters 40 minutes to navigate the refuse and rescue the 38-year-old woman.
Bryan told the 911 operator his cousin was conscious but groggy, speculating that she was heavily medicated.
"She's slurring her speech and out of it," Bryan said.
It could be some time before Minter, who remains in ill health, returns to the home where she lived more than half her life. The house -- condemned by Sandy Springs' Code Enforcement Office -- is in much better shape now. The kudzu and ivy that shrouded much of the brick bungalow is gone, the grass is trimmed and the yard neatly landscaped.
It took about five days to clean the home's interior, said Gordy Powell, president of Georgia Clean and Associates, hired by Minter's family to oversee the project. Powell would not disclose specifics about what was inside the residence but said his company has dealt with much worse.
"We had a clean-up last month that was so bad we found rats nesting in the box spring of the resident's bed," Powell told the AJC. "We did one that took us three weeks [to clean]."
Hoarders have been good for business, Powell said, expanding his company's niche beyond crime scene clean-ups and graffiti removal. "We handled seven hoarders last month," he said, noting that the increase in such jobs has coincided with the popularity of two reality shows, on A&E and TLC, dedicated to pack rats. "The more those shows are on, the more calls we get."
It's not known what causes people to hoard. Some researchers classify it as an isolated disorder while others believe it's a symptom of another condition, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.
A recent study, conducted by the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders Program at the University of California, San Diego, found that hoarders tend to have decreased activity in the part of the brain involved in decision-making, focusing attention and regulating emotion.
Regardless, the consequences can be severe.
Reached Wednesday evening by the AJC, Bryan declined to elaborate on Minter's health or her state of mind. "Pray for her," he said. "Please, just pray for her."
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