A Van for the Eternal Footman
Earlier this week, the New York Times published this article and this videoabout Mike Thomas, a man who retrieves dead bodies for the county morgue in
Call the job dirty. Call it 14 bucks the hard way — $14 a humanbody, $9 an animal. He said he made $14,000 last year. He made most ofit at night.
His tax forms officially read “body technician.”Unofficially, Mike Thomas calls himself body snatcher, grim reaper,night stalker, bag man. Whatever you call it, it is one man’s life.
A few days later, the NY Times reports that, after the story was published, Thomas was “supsended indefinitely without pay pending investigation” by his employer Professoinal Removal Services.
“I told Mike not to talk to the media, and hedid it anyway,” said the company’s owner, Eric Orr. “It’s companypolicy not to talk about the job.”
But Mr. Orr said the policy is not in writing.
“He really didn’t make the city look too good,” he added. “I saw the video.”
Mr. Thomas, 36, said that he might not have gone to college, but thathe knew the meaning of suspended indefinitely: “Permanent vacation.”
Mr.Orr’s county contract is up at the end of this month, but the answeringmachine for Professional Removal Services advertises a positionavailable: body technician.
“I was just telling my life story,”Mr. Thomas said by telephone. “This is America, right? Don’t we stillgot freedom of speech?”
He has three children, no car and, now, no job — a bad combination when you live in the poorest big city in America.
Thebody job paid $14 dollars a corpse, though it did have its drawbacks:picking body parts from Dumpsters, ferrying corpses in anunrefrigerated van.
Mr. Thomas said he hoped his recentnotoriety had hatched an entertainment career. Record people have beento his producer’s Web site, he said, and filmmakers are pitching theidea of a reality show based on his life.
“I got some other options,” Mr. Thomas said.
[Meredith R. Miller]