Neighbors say one house is causing rodent trouble for other residents
DYER COUNTY, Tenn. — Neighbors in one county voice concerns over a house on their street they claim is infested with rats.
We spoke to Chelsea Brooks and Alyssa Newsom, two Dyer County residents who said they are dealing with cat-sized rats due to an unkempt house next door.
“I have neighbors that are hoarders and they have a lot of trash in their yard, the outside of their yard, beds, mattresses. They have rats that climb in and out. There’s a million rats out there, literally,” said Brooks.
Brooks, who has lived next door for four years, shared images to social media showing rats near, and around her property that she says she believes are coming from next door.
“My dog heard something under my sink by my dishwasher and it was a rat the size of a cat under my dishwasher,” said Brooks.
Another neighbor, Alyssa Newsom, who lives across the street from the unkempt house told us the issue is affecting her as well.
“We hear them in our attic, like especially at night time. You can hear them crawling in the roof. So, we had to get mouse traps and poison, throw it all up there. It helped a little bit, but now it’s starting to become more of a problem,” said Newsom.
Along with the rat infestation, Brooks says the buildup of trash in the yard is getting out of hand.
“I mean they’ve built up trash, they actually buried trash in their backyard. They took a bulldozer or a backhoe and buried trash in their back yard,” said Brooks.
Brooks and Newsom have taken the issue to the county codes department and to the county mayor’s office.
We spoke with Dale Dozier who is the Building Official and Codes Enforcer about the issue.
Dozier tells us at this time, he’s in the process of taking the homeowners to court.
“I’m hoping that the judge will force their hand to do something that a court order will be put in place that they have to clean the property up,” said Dozier.
Dozier told us while he hopes the judge can issue a court order, an alternative option would be to have the county pay to clean it up with a lien included where the homeowner would pay it back.
However, he told us he doesn’t want taxpayers to have to pay for the cleanup.
Our crew did knock on the door of the residence in an attempt to get a comment, but no one answered.
For more local news, click here.
