Hoarders

Paramedics rushing to save a woman's life lose precious time when they're forced to climb over the hoard they find in Norman's house. Officials on the scene immediately call the Fire Chief and the Fire Marshall because the home presents a huge fire hazard to the neighborhood. Ever since Linda's husband died ten years ago, she has been adding to a hoard that has now spiraled out of control.

Barbara has been a hoarder her entire life. The daughter of a dumpster-diver, Barbara's hoarding spiraled out of control after the deaths of her two sons, one to cancer and the other to a gun accident. Richard used to be the ma tre d' at fancy restaurants, but his life went downhill when he developed a compulsion for the clearance sale items which now fill his entire home.

Mary's obsession includes hoarding cats, and her friends and family have no idea about the horror that awaits them when they walk through her door. Annie cleans houses for a living, but unbelievably is a hoarder in her own home, where she lives with her son, who grew up in the hoard, and her husband, who has Parkinson's disease and cannot get through the clutter.

Carrie's hoarding stems from a long string of abuse at the hands of family members, and she compulsively shops to "protect" herself. James is an ex-Marine whose home is filled with bowling balls and broken workout equipment, but he insists he's not a hoarder, and that hoarding is not a disorder.

The trauma of dealing with Joanne's hoarding was so bad for her daughter that she has developed post-traumatic stress disorder. After two divorces and experiencing the horror of assault, Kristy began shopping to escape her pain, but her hoarding drove her daughter out of the house and forced Child Protective Services to remove her son.

Barbara trolls for stuff in alleyways and dumpsters, and her hoarded home sits in a million-dollar neighborhood where the neighbors look on in disgust. Fred and Mary live in a house filled with cobwebs and cockroaches, but they don't seem to notice. It's gotten so bad that Fred has end-stage COPD, probably caused by all the filth.

Kathleen's hoarding began after her husband was killed in a train accident. Her hoarding not only fills up her own house, it's filling up her daughter's house, too, where Kathleen has been living. Scott has bought hundreds of houses, buildings, barns, and semi's and filled them with things he buys at auctions, including stuff from a computer store, construction store, hotel supply store and more.

Dee blew through a $150,000 legal settlement to fulfill her hoarding obsession, and her daughter, Talia, could write a book about how damaging it is to be a hoarder's child. But now Talia says she will cut her mother out of her life forever if she doesn't get help. Jan admits she's a pushy, belligerent woman who's been living in filth for years.

Verna is a hot-headed ex-cop, ex-drug trafficker, and ex-prison inmate who has cleverly evaded laws against hoarding by arguing that her hoard was her artistic expression. But now Verna, who has diabetes, is hospitalized, and the hospital refuses to let her return home unless it's cleaned up. Joanne's house has gone from immaculate showplace to garbage pit.

Anna tried to hide her hoarding from her family, but when her suspicious daughter snuck into the house to take pictures, Anna's secret was finally exposed. Claire and Vance love to collect books, but they've overdone it--their house contains an astounding half-million books, and they even sleep in little burrows carved out of towers of thier books.

Chickens roam all over Constance's property, where she runs a "fresh egg" operation. But some eggs aren't refrigerated, some are growing into embryos, and some just stink up the air. Constance is a food hoarder, and unless she gets help, her daughter will contact the authorities. Jeri Jo is married to a convicted murderer who's in jail for life, and she claims her loneliness causes her to hoard.