Cops discover up to 100 decomposing bodies in U-Haul trucks outside Brooklyn funeral home after neighbors complained they could ‘smell death’ and that corpses had been ‘mounting up for weeks’
Around 100 bodies were found in two rental trucks outside the Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home in Brooklyn
Police investigated on Wednesday after neighbors reported a foul smell and seeing bodies being loaded in
Police found about 50 bodies being stored in each of the trucks, which were not refrigerated
The facility said it was forced to store bodies in the trucks when its freezer broke
No criminal charges were brought but the funeral home has been cited for failure to control the smell
Funeral homes across the have been overwhelmed in recent weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic
By FRANCES MULRANEY
DAILYMAIL.COM
30 April 2020
Police discovered 100 bodies stacked in unrefrigerated trucks outside a funeral home in Brooklyn Wednesday after police responded to 911 complaints from neighbors who had been complaining for weeks about the smell.
Authorities found two unrefrigerated U-Haul box trucks being used to store the bodies outside of Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home in Flatlands after neighbors filmed body bags being dragged into them in recent days.
There were as many as 50 corpses being stored in each truck, according to ABC News, as the facility struggled to keep up with the overwhelming surge of bodies due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Police found the bodies in various stages of decomposition.
The owner told city officials that its freezer had stopped working and they were forced to use the trucks as storage while bodies awaited burial or cremation.
‘For weeks already, there have been trucks constantly outside unloading bodies. You could smell the death,’ Jay Fredo told New York Daily News.
‘Some of them have been dropped. I know it’s a pandemic, but this is crazy. It’s sick.’
No criminal charges were brought but the home was cited for failing to control the odors.
The facility was able to obtain a larger, refrigerated truck later in the day, the official said, and workers suited up in protective gear could be seen in the afternoon transferring bodies.
‘I saw 15 bodies in the U-Haul box truck stacked up on one another, and more in the other,’ one officer told the New York Daily News.
‘They stored them right out on the street.’
A member of staff told ABC that there were a further 30 to 40 bodies inside and some were being kept on the floor.
‘This funeral home is over-capacitated with human remains and that is true,’ said Dr. David Penepent, a funeral director who teaches at SUNY Canton and was brought in by the state to help.
‘He got overwhelmed with the number of remains that he had and he didn’t know what to do and I’m here to assist him in this operation.’
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