N.Y. / Region Hoarder Meets Clean-Out Deadline, Exchanging Key for Check By COREY KILGANNON MARCH 17, 2014 At 11 a.m. on Monday, Jeffrey Weber, the managing agent for 344 East 65th Street, walked into Apt. 4D and looked around in amazement. Three weeks ago, the place was packed floor to ceiling with the possessions of Kevin McCrary, 65, who spent years filling his apartment, floor to ceiling, with items he found on the street. But Mr. McCrary, facing eviction, had spent the past three weeks emptying the place to meet the deadline of a buyout deal, under which the building’s management would pay him $12,000 if he completely cleared out the railroad-style one-bedroom, which he has inhabited for 30 years. And now Mr. Weber was walking around the place, staring in disbelief. “It’s good to be able to see the floor and the ceiling,” he said, looking at the dingy walls and the peeling ceiling. “Was that so hard?” he quipped to Mr. McCrary, whose parents were Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg, the glamorous radio and television personalities who were pioneers of the talk show format. Mr. McCrary barely chuckled. He called the process agonizing. He had not had a night’s sleep for weeks, he said, and had to hire a rolling cast of day laborers, with whom he constantly battled to follow his strict orders on which belongings to discard and which would be put in a van and taken to storage.He continued to remove the last of his belongings and corral his four cats and the litter of four kittens he discovered while clearing out items last week. Mr. Weber had been giving Mr. McCrary extensions for months, but finally set an eviction date for last Friday. He then offered Mr. McCrary until Monday morning to get the apartment “broom-clean” to qualify for the buyout money. Mr. Weber had brought the buyout check despite having doubts that Mr. McCrary would really be able to clear out the apartment. “I didn’t think he had the ability to do it, and I’m glad that he did,” he said. The process was not without its drama. On Sunday night, one of Mr. McCrary’s cats bolted out an apartment window and took refuge in a crevice on the building facade. Mr. McCrary called the Fire Department, and a responding firefighter climbed up a fire truck ladder and grabbed the cat, only to have it jump free and fall five stories to the street. So Mr. McCrary spent much of Sunday night with the cat at a nearby animal hospital. Finally, around noon on Monday, it became official. Mr. McCrary, who was the subject of an article in The New York Times this month, stood on the stoop with Mr. Weber. He handed over the check, and Mr. McCrary handed over the apartment key. Most of the money will go toward legal and storage fees, and to his helpers, Mr. McCrary said. “After expenses, I’ll have enough for a MetroCard,” he said. Mr. McCrary said he would take the last of the items to storage and then take a much-needed nap and check on his ailing cat in the animal hospital. As to where he would now live, he said, “I don’t have any idea — I’m open to suggestions.” A version of this article appears in print on March 18, 2014, on page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: Hoarder Meets Clean-Out Deadline, Exchanging Key for Check. Order Reprints|Todays Paper|Subscribe
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 05:40:14 +0000
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