Posted on 11/24/2010 1:11:00 PM PST by nickcarraway
Nocturnal pleas for help were ignored by neighbours, police say
French firefighters freed a 69-year-old woman who spent three weeks trapped in her bathroom and whose nocturnal pleas for help - by tapping on pipes - were ignored by neighbours, police said.
The woman emerged in a "very weakened" state when rescue workers, alerted by neighbours worried because they had not seen her for some time, broke into her home Friday in the Paris suburb of Epinay-sous-Senart to extricate her.
She had got stuck after the bathroom door lock broke.
The woman, who is recuperating in hospital, survived by drinking warm water from the bathroom tap and at night-time tried to call for help by tapping on piping, police said.
But neighbours in the apartment block said they thought someone was doing home repair work and launched a petition to find out who it was and have it stopped.
The Chilean miners should make her an honorary member.
Ah, the French....Worthless since Waterloo! (and probably long before that!)
ping
May I humbly suggest that they keep a Milwaukee reciprocating saw under the bathroom vanity just in case this happens again.
No sh!t?
The story I read about this earlier said that her neighbors circulated a petition to have her evicted over the noise.
someone was doing home repair work and launched a petition to find out who it was and have it stopped.
How very very French
Hey, she saved 3 weeks worth of food money and lost weight to boot = profit.
Thats how I felt the night before my colonoscopy after I drank that gallon of laxative.
It wouldn’t have been so bad if she hadn’t gnawed off one of her feet in an attempt to escape.
In an apartment?! This woman wasn’t very creative.
How about using the tank lid as a battering ram, or to knock off the door knob? If the floor below is a neighbor ... flood the bathroom! Run everybody out of hot water to force an investigation!
...-—...
Rinse & Repeat.
Is/Was Morse universal or just English?
Hmmm, must check on that.
Doesn't matter even if she's on the ground floor. When water starts running out the door, somebody will investigate.
How about since Roncevaux? (August 15, 778)
Wonder if there was a window in this bathroom.
Everyone should learn SOS in Morse Code. Random banging on a pipe is obviously not very effective.
Door hinges are usually on the inside; a flathead screwdriver might be useful, but easier than that is to not lock the door. What’s the point, when no one else is around?
From what I’ve seen of French bathrooms on House Hunters, there probably wasn’t room to swing a tank lid, if there were a tank lid to swing. Some French toilets are tankless.
“Some French toilets are tankless.”
Some are just a hole in the floor.
When my great grandmother was alive, she and her elderly neighbors kept an eye on each other. She couldn’t stand Mr Wolf but if he didn’t back his car out of the garage by 8 AM she called to make sure everything was OK.
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