LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Hungry rodents ate their way through people's personal belongings leaving behind feces and filth at a place that's supposed to store things safely.
13 Action News describes the damage and explains what a public storage insurance company had to say about it.
Joe and Matt's garage of their home is full of belongings they pulled out of two storage units after rats destroyed nearly half of their possessions. It left behind thousands of dollars in damage.
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Matt Wolberd and Joe Hughes rented two 10 by 20 units from public storage on Tropicana Ave. and Mountain Vista Street. A month later, Hughes says it was literally raining rats.
"When I first went in the storage, I put my stuff in and I thought I heard something in the insulation. So, I was looking and all of sudden, two rats fell out of the ceiling and scurried away. It was crazy," said Hughes.
He immediately notified the manager.
"And she goes, we know there's a problem. We're trying to take care of it," said Hughes.
13 Action News spoke to another storage tenant who claims her belongings were also destroyed by rats. We learned Public Storage offered to lower monthly rent to compensate.
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But it was already too late for Wolberd and Hughes. Half of their belongings, including paintings, family keep-sakes and equipment for Wolberd's small business -- all destroyed.
And if not eaten or torn, some of their stuff was covered in rat feces and saturated in urine. A health hazard from which there's no coming back.
Their insurance policy recommended by Public Storage didn't cover much -- only $250 for vermin with a $100 deductible. Wolberd and Hughes say the damage was in the thousands.
When the manager at Public Storage advised she could not speak to us, we went back inside to ask who could. She told us to call the chief legal officer at their corporate office. We left a message but got no response.
"Part of what's happening here at the Public Storage is mismanagement, gross mismanagement, negligence. And we have to take a complete loss on whatever you put in there," said Wolberd.
They fear the loss may grow larger as they continue to comb through what remains in their garage to find out what they can salvage.
Their advice to others — always thoroughly inspect the storage unit you're considering, and whenever possible, keep your belongings at home.
