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.
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 only thing that she could do for the three days she was trapped was to clean her teeth. Of course being French, meant that she’d have had to do a lot of cleaning to get the garlic stink out of her gob. So, although she’s very weakened, by her ordeal, she’s probably saved heaps in dental bills.
And at the age of 69…that can only be a bonus.
by John Jackson
