Written By: Gene Ostrovsky
This is a fascinating story out of Russia of bureaucratic promises and a man without functional legs who brought an apartment on the fifth floor of a build that has no elevator. Amazingly, instead of finding a first floor apartment for the man, the local council promised to install an elevator in the building/
After six years of waiting and requiring someone to carry him up and down, Dmitry Bibikow installed his own lift. Being experienced in rock climbing (the cause of his injury) Dmitry can now get up to his apartment faster than his biped neighbors.
"It was like being in a prison -- so I decided to sort it out myself"
With a little help from his friends, the former sky diver and mountaineer built his own personal lift to haul him up and down the side of the building. When not being used, the winch stays on the fifth floor. It can be lowered by hand or electronically from ground level.
Now Mr Bibikow, married and a father of one, says he can get in and out within minutes and can even beat his neighbors to the fifth floor.
