DETROIT (WXYZ) — Ms. Robinson, who does not want to use her first name, is frustrated and puzzled after she found the front passenger seat of her new SUV had been destroyed by what she believes was a rat.
"I get in the car and I see this hole here, and this is a leather seat, a heated seat, with all the debris," said Robinson who talked to 7 Action News after returning from Home Depot where she purchased poisonous bait for rodents.
Thankfully, there are no rats inside the family's house and they are desperate to keep it that way.
Robinson and a spokesperson for the City of Detroit agree that the high number of abandoned houses on the block are likely attracting the rodents.
At least two of the abandoned homes are set to be demolished in May.
Robinson thinks another rat got into their vehicle in January when they found the stick of a lollipop in the back seat. That's around the same time that she saw a rat when moving a large trash receptacle.
The city replaced the receptacle after a hole was discovered in the bottom of it and city workers placed rodent bait in the area the next day.
What remains unclear is how the rats are getting into Robinson's vehicle.
Unfortunately, Robinson, a single mother, says she can't afford the $500 deductible to make the repairs to the chewed up seat in her vehicle.
A spokesperson for the City of Detroit told 7 Action News that someone from Environmental Services will return to the neighborhood to bait the area again.
