"We've Got a Collyer"
It's been reported that NYC police and fire personnel still use the above expression when faced with a situation made hazardous because a building is so packed with junk/stuff . The Collyer brothers, the famous recluses/hoarders whose Harlem home contained over 100 tons of junk collected over decades (as seen in photo) were discovered deceased amidst the rubble in 1947.
In his new book, Homer & Langley, author E.L. Doctorow takes some of the basic facts of the Collyer brothers' lives and weaves them into a fictional account which has been described as a "small but sweeping masterpiece." Doctorow views the Collyers as "two brothers who opted out of civilization and pulled the world in after them."