An elderly widow has shared her horror at seeing rats invaded her kitchen and says that her cries for help have gone unanswered.
Edna O’Hara first noticed rodents scurrying across her oven and kitchen countertops on December 10 after seeing them on Ring doorbell footage.
The 80-year-old said she contacted Thirteen Housing the same day, but no one showed up. After being approached by Teesside Live, the housing association apologised for the delay and confirmed they visited Mrs O’Hara on Wednesday, January 8.
However, Mrs O’Hara believes it was too late for her beloved pet dog Lilly, who passed away on December 27. She suspects Lily may have contracted a disease from the rats, such as Weil’s disease, also known as leptospirosis.
“They carry all types of diseases and when I come to think about it, I wonder if they’ve passed on Weil’s disease to Lily,” she said. “She was a healthy little dog. She was only ten.”
Mrs O’Hara has lived in the house on Barrington Crescent since 1958 and stated that while she has had mice in the house before, she has never seen a rat in the property, reports Teesside Live.
Mrs O’Hara has now been offered support from Thirteen’s housing services team
(Image: Terry Blackburn)
Weeks after their first sighting, she said they continue to appear almost every night. She described how she has spent hours cleaning and bleaching her kitchen, as well as setting up numerous traps including sticky pads, electric rat catchers, and manual bait traps.
On Wednesday morning, she discovered the rodents had been in a cupboard and chewed through boxes of her hot drink packets.
“I’ve been constantly sweeping the floor and washing it with Dettol and scrubbing my worktops with bleach,” she shared. “I’ve also been putting Domestos down the side of the freezer but you can’t reach all the way back.
“I have footage on my phone of the rats jumping up onto my worktops where I prepare food.”
Mrs O’Hara revealed that she has sent numerous emails to Thirteen Group about the issue, along with the footage.
She also expressed her disappointment over a missed scheduled visit on January 2. “They’ve given me false information saying they are going to send people round,” she said.
“I waited in all day from 8am to 5pm on January 2 when they said the rat investigation people would come to my house and not a soul came.”
Mrs O’Hara is still mourning the loss of Lily who first fell ill on Christmas Day. Over the next two days, the dog suffered diarrhoea and showed signs of “restlessness”.
“Within two days at the most she started vomiting and diarrhoea and she then passed away,” Mrs O’Hara recounted. The pensioner found her small dog’s body at the back door of the kitchen, with bloody water pooled beside her mouth.
Tragically, due to having cameras installed in her kitchen, Mrs O’Hara recorded her own pet’s death. This happened just after the three-year anniversary of her husband John’s death, and the pensioner admitted it hit her hard.
“I have lost my little Jack Russell, because I believe she had been in contact with urine or droppings off the rats,” she lamented. “There was only me and her here – she was my companion.”
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Michelle Younger, director of experience and estate services at Thirteen, said: “‘We would like to apologise. The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our priority and, since receiving a report about pests from Mrs O’Hara in December, we have been working closely with our pest control provider to investigate.
“Our pest control provider visited Mrs O’Hara’s home on January 8 to locate the entry point of the pests and carry out treatment. As the entry point is close to plumbing in the property, a follow up appointment has been arranged for our trade operatives to carefully seal the area and prevent future access for pests.
“We would like to apologise to Mrs O’Hara for the delay with visiting her home. We are committed to taking all necessary steps to thoroughly resolve the issue.”
“As we understand that this is a distressing time for Mrs O’Hara, our housing services team is also in touch with her and has visited her home to offer support.”