A dying woman, trapped in her bathroom for 3 weeks, bangs on pipes for help to no avail--neighbors assume the noise is construction and start a petition to stop the ceaseless noise that continues through the nights.
The 69-year-old became stuck in her Paris, France, bathroom after a lock broke. Firefighters in France finally broke into the home, freeing the elderly woman – but only after a neighbor noticed that her mail hadn’t been picked up in weeks.
The elderly and dying woman survived only by drinking tap water -- now malnourished after the rescue, and in a bad state of shock, but alive. The locked bathroom had no windows, so the trapped woman banged on the plumbing pipes for help and in efforts to gain neighbors’ attention. Neighbors did hear the noise – thinking instead that the banging was caused by noisy workmen.
It is a bit unclear as to how neighbors assumed that construction was occurring around-the-clock for three weeks straight.
Annoyed by the sounds, French neighbors started a petition to stop the banging and noise levels: "You could hear banging sounds, like a hammer, even at night," a neighbor told the BBC. "But we thought they [construction workers or workmen] were doing work at night. We said: 'They are going too far! They are preventing us from sleeping!'”