Man who died at his desk at work, but wasn't noticed-Fiction!

New York Office Employee Dead at His Desk for 5 Days Before Anyone Notices-Fiction!

Summary of eRumor: The story says that a newspaper article from the Birmingham Sunday Mercury tells about an employee of a publishing company who sat dead at his desk for five days before anyone noticed.

The Truth: This article first appeared in the American tabloid Weekly World News in 2000 and was republished by other tabloids including The Guardian in Great Britain on December 15, 2000. There is a newspaper in Birmingham, England, called the Sunday Mercury, so perhaps it appeared in there as well. None of the stories lists the name of the place where the man worked or any other information to give the tale any credibility.

Last update 4/2/04

A real example of the story as it has been circulated:

In the Birmingham Sunday Mercury (7th Jan 2001)

Worker dead at desk for 5 days

Bosses of a publishing firm are trying to work out why no one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting dead at his desk for FIVE DAYS before anyone asked if he was feeling okay.

George Turklebaum, 51, who had been employed as a proofreader at a New York firm for 30 years, had a heart attack in the open-plan office he shared with 23 other workers. He quietly passed away on Monday, but nobody noticed until Saturday morning when an office cleaner asked why he was still working during the weekend. His boss Elliot Wachiaski said "George was always the first guy in each morning and the last to leave at night, so no one found it unusual that he was in the same position all that time and didn’t say anything. He was always absorbed in his work and kept much to himself."

A post mortem examination revealed that he had been dead for five days after suffering a coronary. Ironically, George was proofreading manuscripts of medical textbooks when he died.... You may want to give your coworkers a nudge occasionally.