A book-loving pack rat tried to squeeze even more tomes into his tiny New York City apartment and ended up buried under an avalanche of books, magazines and other stuff.

"I was hollering for two days, 'Let me out! Let me out!'" Patrice Moore tells the New York Post.

The 42-year-old former mail room clerk was trapped under his possessions for two days. His screaming finally alerted the landlord but despite breaking the door down, the avalanche kept rescuers from opening the door.

Even after the landlord removed the door from its hinges it took three hours to dig out the man.

Moore says he collects books and magazines and peddles them back on the street for about $300 a week.

MAN MAULED TO DEATH BY BEAR

One of the oldest workers of the Kronotsky wildlife refuge in Russia -- which contains about 600 bears -- was mauled to death.

Photographer and hunting specialist Vitaly Nikolayenko fell victim to a big bear he was photographing.

Nikolayenko failed to use the weapon he was carrying when the bear attacked, the Russian news agency Novosti reports.

Officials at the Kronotsky wildlife refuge say cases of attacks on man by the bears are extremely rare.

POLICE WANT TO RESTRICT FRIDGE-THROWING

Police in South Africa are pleading with residents to not hurl refrigerators from the balconies of tall building on New Year's or shoot guns into the air.

"We have given out thousands of leaflets pleading with people not to throw objects from their balconies as well as not to fire celebratory shots in the air," says Inspector Kriben Naidoo.

Police, forced to wear flack jackets and patrol in armored vehicles during New Year's in Johannesburg's Hill Brow district, have been warning residents that anyone throwing large objects from balconies will be prosecuted, Sky News reports.

WANTED MAN HALF-BROTHER OF OFFICER

A New York City police precinct commander passed by a wanted man's picture posted in his station house for weeks, apparently unaware he was a relative.

Philip Banks says he was stunned to learn the shooting suspect in the photo was a younger half-brother he never knew he had.

"I never knew the existence of this individual, so it's quite a shock, to say the least," the 41-year-old police inspector tells the New York Daily News. "And I don't consider this person my brother."

Twenty-seven-year-old Neron Banks was caught and charged with shooting a retired police officer's son in the chest on Aug. 24.