The LA Times labeled this 'Shop Till You Drop', but instead of a frazzled shopper brought down by exhaustion, it's another hoarder lost to the force of gravity.
In general, a shopping addiction is not as bad as a gambling addiction. At least the bankrupt shopper has *something* to show for their efforts. But hoarders have to beware of the principle of conservation of mass:
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.
...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.
...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.
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