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Published at 1:48pm
Published on 7/24/08
Video
Leonardo Capalbo has no problem living on the 13th floor; in fact, he's signed up for the unlucky level twice. “In the building I lived in before, I was on the 13th floor, but it was labeled 14,” says the 29-year-old opera singer. This time around, though, his Upper West Side building doesn't hide from the diabolical digits. “So I've lived on the 13th floor twice, but now I can admit to it.“
As luck would have it, Capalbo doesn't suffer from superstition; he even owns a black cat. “I'm 100 percent Italian, and for Italians, 13 is a very lucky number,” he muses. “My mother even had a necklace with a 13 charm.“
Columbia University medical student Jeremy Ragland is a little more skeptical. When he and his roommate, Taison Bell, entered the lottery for an on-campus apartment, they wound up with the second-to-last choice of housing. “The only ones left were 13C or 2C,” Ragland says. “We were like, 'Can we really live on the 13th floor?'“
They eventually went for it, though Ragland refuses to tempt fate any further. “I avoid black cats on the street,” he jokes. “I feel like I have enough strikes against me.” Bell isn't as triskaidekaphobic, since he's got the numbers on his side; he was born on January 13. “For me, 13 can't be a bad-luck number because then I'd be born into bad luck, and I can't live life like that,” he says. “I've had two birthdays fall on a Friday, and I do get better gifts because people think I'm going to die or something. So it's actually brought me good luck.“
As it turns out, the only eerie beings the med students have run into are their neighbors. “In the elevator,” Ragland notes, “random people always have something to say, like, 'I can't believe you live there!'” Bell has felt those fears too. “People look at me funny,” he says, but then quickly adds, “What's the big deal? You can skip the 13th floor, but that doesn't mean it's not there!“
