Devon Postman The Letter Hoarder
These days, people are becoming more and more aware of compulsive hoarding. London house clearance specialists Jeffrey Avery & Associates regularly experience problems with hoarding, a debilitating and misunderstood condition, and TV programmes have helped to create more awareness of what it is and how it affects people.
Hoarding victims create vast collections of items over many years until they fill up the living space inside their property and make it uninhabitable.
A scene of piles of books and papers covering the floor so that no carpet is visible is quite normal for hoarding situations.
But this was not the scene which greeted the people who discovered the secret of Paul Willicott, a postman from Devon.
He had somehow managed to accrue a collection of 30,000 undelivered items in his own home, claiming that he only had a four-hour shift and was unable to deliver them all. However, despite having 67 bags of post in his home, he had managed to keep them hidden from his family.
As a result, he confessed to delaying postal packets and was forced to pay £1,700 in costs.
He said that he had the intention of delivering the mail when he experienced a lighter workload, but the opportunity never arose.
He was only caught when someone spotted him leaving some mail in his garage instead of delivering it.
It is a strange case because, although there is no indication that Willicott suffered from compulsive hoarding, the behaviour seemed to resemble a hoarding case due to the sheer amount of items collected.
But whatever the reason he kept hold of so many items of post, the people of Devon will surely be glad that he has been discovered so that now they might be able to once again get their items of post delivered.
We are a professional house clearance company dealing with properties affected by compulsive hoarding in London, Surrey and across the UK. If you need confidential advice call Jeffrey Avery on 0800 567 7769
