RockChuck: Yes I can imagine that piled high newspaper scenario!
Decades ago I was dispatched to a "check the welfare" situation to a beautiful view house on Seattles Queen Anne Hill.
My partner and I were looking for an elderly woman who would not answer the phone calls from her out of state adult child.
We tried looking in the windows but newspapers were piled so high that we could not see in.
Eventually we forced a rear door and our search was hampered by the smell of death and incredible stacks of newspapers - some stacks went to the ceiling. In some rooms I had to turn sideways to get down the "tunnels/aisles" of stacked newspapers!
We eventually found the dead and decomposing lady who we later learned had died of a heart attack. She was in her late 90's.
But for many decades she had been taking BOTH of Seattles daily and Sunday newspapers and she saved and stacked them all!
Run of the mill hoarder we thought, but no, heres the kicker - inside every paper she had saved was a single one dollar bill!
We discovered this when some of the newspapers were knocked over when the Medical Examiners Crew got there and their gerni bumped over a pile and the monies fell out of the papers!
The Fire Department was called for consultation on the danger to the nearby homes as the houses were literally just 15 - 20 feet apart in that old neighborhood.
The Fire Department took charge of the house and it took them two days to pack out and away those papers.
I have dealt with "hoarders" professionally MANY dozens of times and still have NO idea what motivates them.
This little old lady was certainly NOT hoarding newspapers to keep others from having her stuff - like one of our CampFirers contends - she was just a semi-harmless kook.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
