Mouse Problem Returns After West Side Family Pays Exterminator Nearly $600 To Get Rid Of Them; 'Here We Go Again'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mice have caused quite the ruckus for a Chicago family, even after they paid a pest control company hundreds of dollars to remove the rodents from their home in the Austin neighborhood.
Thirteen-month-old Jacob might be the ruler of the roost, but he's not the only creature crawling around the kingdom. His mother, Sandy Ramirez, is mortified by what's repeatedly captured on her home security cameras.
"My kids are like 'There's a mouse! There's a mouse!' So what we do is grab it, throw it in the trash like, 'Ugh, another one. Here we go again,'" she said. "You see them running back and forth. You even see them running by the mouse traps."
Sticky traps worked for a while, but sometimes caught the wrong culprit. Ramirez said Jacob's sock got stuck once, so she had to throw out those socks.
Her curious baby made other home remedies too tricky, so Ramirez turned to Velocity Rodent/Wildlife Control last October.
"I looked at Home Advisor to see who they would recommend, and they were the first ones that popped up," she said. "They were here within three days."
Nearly $600 later – with repairs to utility lines, dryer vents, and more – the mice aren't gone. In fact, Ramirez says they're a lot bigger than the first mice her family dealt with.
Ramirez said she's even seen mice run inside her oven.
"So when we cook, it's our biggest fear that it's just gonna pop out, but nothing comes out when we're cooking," she said.
Velocity's contract specifically lists a three-year warranty, but Ramirez hasn't been able to get a Velocity exterminator to return to her house for 10 months and counting.
Terrible reviews on Yelp show she's not the only one having communication issues.
The Tinley Park address listed on the agreement turned out to be a UPS store. Employees there said Velocity shut down its mailbox in April.
Reached in Florida, the owner confirmed Velocity closed shop in Illinois, despite Facebook posts from this summer suggesting the contrary.
The owner told CBS 2 he stands by his warranty for repairs, but said it doesn't guarantee mice aren't still inside the house.
He also said the customer also would have had to pay for trapping.
Velocity owner Brian Payne said Ramirez opted against interior trapping and sterilization recommended by the company's field staff.
"This customer paid less than a singular trapping service for the itemized repairs, but only did a small portion of which was truly needed to remedy the issue. This was explained to the customer, and the customers financial situation at the time led them to attempt to slow the ongoing rodent situation down with singular repairs that were needed at the time of service," he wrote. "As with any pest control provider or Wildlife removal company, if the recommended steps are not elected by the customer, the burden of the problem is still the customers to bear."
Ramirez said she did pay for trapping, but the Velocity trap never worked.
Ramirez said she's been tempted to move out of her house, "but you know, we don't want them to overcome our fear of being here."
Velocity's owner suggested Ramirez call another exterminator since his company isn't operating in Illinois anymore. He did not offer a refund.
