Althouse: "WHO EVER READS THIS IM IN THE DARK AS IM WRITING THIS I'M DIEING

November 5, 2012

"WHO EVER READS THIS IM IN THE DARK AS IM WRITING THIS I'M DIEING – Im 28 yrs old my name is Mike."

"I had to break in your house. I took blankets off the couch. I have hypothermia. I didn't take any thing.... I hope u can read this I’m in the dark. I took a black jacket too. Goodbye. God all mighty help me."

28 comments:

edutcher said...: He's in Ocean County? That's about halfway down the Jersey shore.

If things are that bad that far down, Barry can kiss the Garden State a fond farewell tomorrow.; 11/5/12, 2:25 PM
Anonymous said...: Ending with an instinctive plea at a time of ultimate earthly peril.; 11/5/12, 2:27 PM
Carol said...: Neat story.

I was afraid it was going to be a note from a dead guy.; 11/5/12, 2:28 PM
KCFleming said...: I'm glad he survived.

Very little good news from there of late.; 11/5/12, 2:29 PM
wyo sis said...: How terrifying and disorienting. Poor guy.; 11/5/12, 2:29 PM
john said...: Reminds me of "Mum, the bear is eating me!"; 11/5/12, 2:33 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Mike told the station last week that he walked outside of his bayfront home in Toms River as the storm bore down and he got pulled by a current.

“I had no clothes on at the time, so I just went in their house, I just had one piece of clothing on me,” he said.

Mother nature is not a drinking game.; 11/5/12, 2:33 PM
Big Mike said...: I'm glad he survived, and I gather he plans to make restitution for what he took from the vacant house in his desperation. I hope he does.

But I wish to H*ll he had heeded Christie's order to evacuate.

At the time he wrote the note, I bet the guy was wishing the same.; 11/5/12, 2:35 PM
john said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/5/12, 2:38 PM
Shanna said...: I was afraid it was going to be a note from a dead guy.

I am so, so glad it wasn't!; 11/5/12, 2:40 PM
Rusty said...: wyo sis said...
How terrifying and disorienting. Poor guy.

And cold. Being cold is very disheartening.; 11/5/12, 2:45 PM
Rusty said...: But I wish to H*ll he had heeded Christie's order to evacuate.

It's very hard to leave all that you know, all that you own. To just turn your back and close the door.
That's your home. It's hard to think that everything you've worked for will be destroyed. Harder still to think all you've worked for will be stolen.
I understand the thinking.; 11/5/12, 2:49 PM
William said...: The story doesn't tell what combination of circumstances led him to go outside with minimal clothes during a hurricane. The untold part of this story is what's intriguing. Probably something to do with an Obama voter registration drive.; 11/5/12, 2:57 PM
Larry J said...: It's very hard to leave all that you know, all that you own. To just turn your back and close the door.
That's your home. It's hard to think that everything you've worked for will be destroyed. Harder still to think all you've worked for will be stolen.
I understand the thinking.

Ultimately, all of that is just stuff that can be replaced. Don't be a prisoner to your stuff. It isn't worth dying over.; 11/5/12, 3:00 PM
X said...: you're so compassionate leslyn. can't understand why people wouldn't want government healthcare administered by a caring, government loving asshole like you.; 11/5/12, 3:02 PM
john said...: Two symptoms nearly unique to hypothermia are 1) the victim has excellent muscular coordination (eg good penmanship) even when violently shivering in the dark; 2) victim's mental disorientation exhibited by displays of empathy to strangers.

Dangerous and potentially fatal, we see that hypothermia also touches our willing suspension of disbelief.; 11/5/12, 3:16 PM
Unknown said...: First time reading through this my brain inserted a T. I thought he was dieting. I couldn't see why he was writing a note about it but he had my sympathy.; 11/5/12, 3:41 PM
Darrell said...: I had my suspicions when the note started off "I am writing this slowly because I know you Althouse hillbillies can't read very fast..."; 11/5/12, 3:47 PM
cold pizza said...: Been there. Got the T-shirt. Did stupid stuff during typhoons in the Philippines, hurricanes in the Gulf, tornadoes in Alabama, rivers in Canada, food in Mexico and Korea.

Scars are more interesting than tattoos. A tattoo story usually starts by "I was drunk and..." Scars have STORIES! -CP; 11/5/12, 3:48 PM
CWJ said...: I would have kept this to myself if john had not commented earlier. I call bullshit. If you are writing a long note to posterity because you seriously think you are you going to die, do you really identify yourself as just "Mike?"

Bullshit! But I repeat myself.; 11/5/12, 3:59 PM
cold pizza said...: I think the letter was genuine. I've been through pre-deployment physiological training where the SG staff covered hyperthermia and hypoxia. Judgment and rationality are the first casualties of reduced blood flow.

Kind of like "I was drunk and ... got a tattoo." -CP; 11/5/12, 5:10 PM
Methadras said...: john said...

Reminds me of "Mum, the bear is eating me!"

In Soviet Russia, bears eat you.; 11/5/12, 5:50 PM
Eric said...: I'm glad he survived, too, but this is one of those times when I wonder just how someone gets himself into this position.

You're supposed to learn how not to do this when you're a child of, say, eight or nine years.; 11/5/12, 5:59 PM
Paul said...: As John Farnnam says, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN.

Don't sit there depending on Uncle Sugar Sam. Not saying to be a super survivalist but prepare so you don't have to worry about 911 or FEMA or whomever decides to stop buffing their fingernails and come help you.

Nemo Curat; 11/5/12, 6:31 PM
Kathy K said...: Hypothermia (as cold pizza said) does tend to induce...well, a certain lack of judgment (I don't see the hypoxia in there just because of cold - though I have extensive experience with hypoxia-induced dementia - being a caregiver to a COPD parent who tends to take off the oxy when he shouldn't...)BUT

Anyway, glad he survived, although I suspect he had some mental problems previously (no/few clothes? walking outside his house while a hurricane was coming? Scuse?)

Still, he's on the side of right - he wants to pay back, he left a note. So, yes, I'm glad he lived.; 11/5/12, 7:33 PM
CWJ said...: Sorry cold pizza. I'm still not buying it. If judgement or rationality can't be used, then what is your basis for thinking its genuine. You have no basis. If anything, the irrational, desperate, and disoriented cling even more closely to their personal identity. I don't believe that this guys self identity is limited to "Mike."; 11/5/12, 7:46 PM
hombre said...: But, but, but Obama was there for a while between campaign stops "talkin' to folks" which made it all better. Right?

I heard it from the Obamamedia.; 11/5/12, 8:26 PM
Anonymous said...: @KathyK

Short of child-rape, is there really something he could have done where you would not have been glad he lived?; 11/5/12, 11:52 PM