Up to 60 bodies were discovered either stacked in U-Haul box trucks outside Andrew Cleckley Funeral Services or on the building's floor. Photo / ABC7NY
Up to 60 bodies were discovered either stacked in U-Haul box trucks outside Andrew Cleckley Funeral Services or on the building's floor. Photo / ABC7NY
Police have found dozens of bodies being stored in unrefrigerated trucks outside an infamous Brooklyn funeral home, law enforcement sources told the New York Post.
Sources told the newspaper that between 40 to 60 bodies were discovered either stacked in U-Haul box trucks outside Andrew Cleckley Funeral Services in Flatlands or on the building's floor.
Up to 60 bodies were discovered either stacked in U-Haul box trucks outside Andrew Cleckley Funeral Services or on the building's floor. Photo / ABC7NY
Police were made aware of the bodies after neighbours made reports of a foul smell which they claimed came from the trucks.
The funeral director told Eyewitness News that they had run out of space inside for bodies, bit insisted that no bodies were being kept in the trucks outside.
He said all bodies are either inside the morgue or inside a refrigerated truck.
A section of the street has been closed off to the public as NYPD detectives and several other city agencies investigate.
The NYPD closed the street in front of the Brooklyn funeral home. Photo / ABC7NY
"The department has been notified of storage issues of decedents and alternate arrangements are being made by the funeral home," the New York State Health Department said in a statement provided to ABC News.
A neighbour, John DiPietro, told the Post that he observed cadavers being stored in the trucks for at least several weeks during the coronavirus pandemic.
"You don't respect the dead that way. That could have been my father, my brother," he said.
Brooklyn Borough president Eric Adams said the city needed to increase staff and create a "bereavement committee" to deal with the surging deaths due to the coronavirus.
"We need to bring in funeral directors, morgues, [medical examiners], clergies ... when you find bodies in trucks like this throughout our city, treating them in an undignified manner, that's unacceptable."
The funeral director insisted no bodies were being kept in U-Haul trucks. Photo / ABC7NY
Funeral directors are required to store bodies awaiting burial or cremation in appropriate conditions that prevent infection.
However, they are being squeezed on one side by inundated hospitals trying to offload bodies, and on the other by the fact that cemeteries and crematoriums are booked for a week at least, sometimes two, according to AP.
There have been more than 295,137 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in New York, including more than 162,348 in New York City.
More than 17,968 people with Covid-19 have died in the state, not including the deaths of people with probable cases.
