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TLC Show 'Hoarding' Films Episode in West Humboldt Park Home

By Victoria Johnson | January 22, 2013 7:37am

WEST HUMBOLDT PARK — A West Humboldt Park woman and her trash-filled house will be featured on an upcoming episode of TLC's reality series "Hoarding: Buried Alive" after filming wrapped Monday.

The show features people who struggle to throw anything way, leading to homes piled high with random objects and refuse.

Paul Speredes, who runs Able Removal Service out of north suburban Morton Grove, said there was so much trash in the woman's house — near Grand Avenue and Pulaski Road — that he and a crew filled two 50-cubic-yard containers full of it.

That equates to about one semitruck of trash.

"It had to have accumulated for many, many years because it was just terrible," he said, adding that he found cat and mouse droppings all over the house, as well as a ton of roaches.

There were still loads of clutter in the basement and at least two other bedrooms full of garbage they didn't get to for the filming of the show, Speredes explained. The woman said she might contract with him to finish the job, as the show paid only for the first load.

It was Speredes' second stint on the show, which he enjoys filming because he has four hoarders in his own family and empathizes with its subjects.

"So I'm like the anti-hoarder," he said. "Basically I want to help other hoarders, too."

He shot his own cell phone video of his crew working on Sunday that he posted to YouTube.

A film crew could still be seen Monday afternoon wandering in and out of the building's two apartments, which Speredes' said belonged to the woman and her tenant.

The crew did not wish to speak in depth about the job and would not say when the episode would run, though they did confirm they were finishing up shooting a show there.

Speredes said he was told it would air sometime in April.

The woman who was featured did not answer her door, and a videographer said she was being interviewed elsewhere for the show.

A phone message left for the woman Monday afternoon was not immediately returned.