‘It’s an invasion’: Residents at DeKalb County apartment complex complain about rats

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Outside of nearly every entrance and building at The Avondale Reserve are little black boxes.

They are rat traps, and residents say they are too little too late.

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“I have rats, I have an infestation of rats,” Chantel Sims said.

Sims says she has lived at the complex for three years and has loved her time there. However, three months ago, she started to see signs of rats and says she brought her concerns to the apartment complex.

She says the complex was slow to act.

“It’s an invasion. I’m sharing my home with a nasty, filthy creature,” Sims said.

She is not alone.

Channel 2′s Michael Doudna talked to Bobbie Jackson and Tay Rankins on WSB Tonight at 11 p.m. They used to live at the complex, and said they had their own issues with rats.

Rankins said she killed four rats over a seven-week span at her apartment. She decided to move out last week.

Jackson remembers walking up the stairs one day when she went face to face with a creature.

“Something ran across my foot, and I looked down it was a rat. About this long and this thick,” Jackson said. “It’s not my job to figure it out, but something needs to change.”

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In response, the apartment complex said in an email: “We take all of our residents’ complaints seriously and work diligently to rectify their situation. Management was made aware of a rodent concern and we have been working with our exterminating company to resolve this matter. We have installed rodent stations throughout our community as well and we are completing full exclusion work with their wildlife division. Please understand that we take pride in our community and work hard to provide a nice, clean, and well-maintained community for our residents.”

As for Sims, she says she is tired of waiting for the rats to get evicted and is trying to figure out where else she can go.

“I’ll figure it out. I have no choice, right? Because they didn’t,” Sims said.

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