In the Birmingham Sunday Mercury (7th Jan 2001) Worker dead at desk for 5 days. Bosses of a publishing firm are trying to work out why no one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting dead at his desk for FIVE DAYS before anyone asked if he was feeling okay. George Turklebaum, 51, who had been employed as a proof-reader at a New York firm for 30 years, had a heart attack in the open-plan office he shared with 23 other workers. He quietly passed away on Monday, but nobody noticed until Saturday morning when an office cleaner asked why he was still working during the weekend. His boss Elliot Wachiaski said "George was always the first guy in each morning and the last to leave at night, so no one found it unusual that was in the same position all that time and didn't say anything. He was always absorbed in his work and kept much to himself." A post mortem examination revealed that he had been dead for five days after suffering a coronary. Ironically, George was proofreading manuscripts of medical textbooks when he died. ------------------ consultant, n.: Someone who knowns 101 ways to make love, but can't get a date.
gotta be a legend, right? Even reputable newspapers get fooled from time to time. I can't buy this one. The irony is a little too sweet.
I dunno . . . found it at <a href="http://www.geeklife.com">GeekLife</a> and there were people on both sides of the fence. ------------------ consultant, n.: Someone who knowns 101 ways to make love, but can't get a date.
I don't know how that could happen. Wouldn't you notice that he isn't even doing anything, just sitting there? ------------------
snopes has (finally ) got a page up about this. snopes lists it as "undetermined". I'll never believe it. No one noticed rigor mortis? The dead man's skin getting paler and paler? (Gotta be a white guy with a name like Turklebaum, right ) No one wondered why he was always slumped over with his head touching the books he was proofreading? As snopes said, Why did this first get reported in a British newspaper, even though the incident occurred in NY? None of the NYC tabloids wanted to cover it? Apparently, the Birmingham Sunday Mercury actually did print this item. In response to inquiries, they published this on 1-28-01. Well of course the story is true! The Sunday Mercury's Crazy World spots are compiled by journalist Keith Chalkley -- a man with a Midas touch for finding strange goings-on in every corner of the globe. Keith said: 'I was first alerted to George's story by a New York radio station I broadcast to. 'But New York police, to whom I spoke, say the case isn't as odd as people might think. 'In 1975, an insurance clerk with a firm in Manhattan died in his workplace -- and it was 18 DAYS later that it was found that he was dead.'
18 days??? I find that to be a touch un-f*ckin-believable I would think that the stench of a two week old corpse would have been a dead giveaway ------------------ no sig here
What about the stink? I imagine that after 5 days, it would start smelling pretty damn ripe in there! ------------------ "Blues is a Healer" --John Lee Hooker
I could not find this on my hoax and urban legend website, but if you ever wonder if the emails you are getting are real, try: www.hoaxkill.com ------------------ There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
"He quietly passed away on Monday." The story was published Monday, January 7, 2001. So he was working on New Years Day? In New York City? There must be some embellishment in there! When I worked on an ambulance, I had several cases where people didn't believe someone was dead, not for five days, but for longer than I would have thought. One a wife discovered in the morning after he had been dead about eight hours -- the electric blanket kept him warm, and she thought he was sleeping. Another (this one elderly), put her ill husband to bed in the afternoon, said he was still sleeping soundly when she went to bed, but she thought she heard him cough during the night (about 3), checked on him, and his hands were ice cold. So, she gets up, turns up the gas heater in the room, puts another blanket over him, and goes back to bed! The next morning when she had trouble waking him up, she called an ambulance. The JP estimated he had been dead for 16 hours. So who knows. People sometimes think funny things. ------------------ Stay Cool...
maybe he always smelled , and people were just afraid to tell him anything. ------------------ http://www.democrats.com
rock, hahah ------------------ Ceo of the Walt Williams fan club. Web site coming soon atheistalliance.org
