1,600 lots. In the process they loaded 10 large dumpsters, “one of which was half filled with broken dolls.”
Like A.K. Miller, Hartung was tough. As Walksler recalls, “He’d not sell, but he would trade, and it caused pain to whoever was trading with him. He was always on the large side of the deal. He lived on the property without water for 40 years and his every minute was spent collecting.”
After the Hartung experience, Kelleher commented that “I don’t think LeRoy had any interest in sharing things after a point. He was paranoid about people breaking in and robbing him. In the end his stuff ran his life.” Kelleher adds: “I’d fly home and look at my things and wonder how much stuff really needed.”
I
Cured of Collecting? Hoarding can be treated, primarily
through the combination of cognitive behavioral therapy and medication. “Psychotherapy is many times more
successful than drugs alone,” says psychopharmacologist Ken Brasfield, Pharm.D. But the best treatment is using both together. “The wrong drugs can increase anxiety and OCD, and hoarding patients have high anxiety.”
In many cases, hoarders hoard until the end of their lives, and it’s left to the surviving family members to bring in the dumpsters and auctioneers. The late Harold LeMay gathered thousands of cars, and it was only after his death that the family started selling them, saving the most important cars for display at America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, Washington.
For every hoarder there are many more healthy collectors. What sets them apart is the knowledge and acceptance that they might have too many cars, and so they sell one or more. Sometimes the collections are culled, and other times collectors sell to make room for a new acquisition. For collectors, using and sharing their cars is what matters most. For hoard- ers, it’s all about the hunt or the having.
A.K. Miller (opposite) seemed to derive little pleasure from either the Stutz cars or the gold he amassed, while Lee Roy Hartung almost literally walled himself into his own Aladdin's Cave (above).
PHOTO: DARIN SCHNABEL © 2011 COURTESY AUCTIONS AMERICA
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