Taipei Times
Date: Jun 24, 2020
By: Chang Kuang-pei / Staff reporter

Health authorities in Changhua County are looking to issue a resident with an order to seek medical treatment and impose fines after the woman’s neighbors complained of trash heaps at her house, but psychiatrists say she might suffer from compulsive hoarding syndrome.

The village warden on Wednesday last week said the woman, surnamed Pan (潘), who is in her 70s, often picks up discarded items from the streets, although her family is not poor, and she had reportedly stolen broken electric fans and bicycles from other residents.

Residents said a garbage dump created by Pan next to her home had been cleared by local garbage collectors four times in two years, but she has continued to collect discards and other trash.

Pan’s husband and son no longer live with her, reportedly due to her collection of garbage and the smell.  [FULL  STORY]