3:43pm UK, Tuesday January 04, 2011
A suicidal man who tried to jump to his death from a New York apartment building is still alive thanks to rubbish left uncollected in the recent deluge of snow.
A pile of bin bags below the apartment building broke the man's fall
The man, named as 26-year-old Vangelis Kapatos, survived the 100ft fall from his ninth-floor apartment after landing on stacked-up bin bags.
He is said to be in a critical but stable condition in hospital.
A police spokesman said: "He landed on a garbage pile - that's the only reason he's alive."
Katharina Capatos, Vangelis Kapatos's auntEverybody is complaining that the trash hasn't been picked up. But me, I'm thankful that it was never picked up.
Piles of rubbish, some up to six feet deep, have been left clogging pavements since a storm on December 26 dumped a foot of snow on New York.
Dustmen have been prevented from collecting any waste since the Christmas weekend due to the quantity of snow and the number of vehicles left abandoned in the streets.
Mr Kapatos, who apparently suffers from mental health problems, is said to have jumped from the building on West 45th Street after being threatened with eviction.
New York has struggled to recover from the heavy snowstorm
His aunt, Katharina Capatos, who spells her name differently from her nephew's, said: "Everybody is complaining that the trash hasn't been picked up. But me, I'm thankful that it was never picked up."
The 64-year-old, added: "Maybe it was lucky we had this snow and they hadn't cleared the garbage."
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has come under fire for the city's poor response to the snow.
He has admitted the handling of the storm was "inadequate and unacceptable".
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