Email to Krenger from T - May 10, 2009

Marty Krenger:

I have lived at 5528 N Kenmore Ave in unit --- going on two years. I have spoken with Erica in 106, who recommended that I send an email detailing where I have heard and seen roaches in the last few months.

In the past two months, I have seen a huge increase in the number of roaches I have either seen dead in my apartment or have been forced to kill. I find these incidents very disturbing and stressful. Each time it happens, I try to stay out of my apartment, which is a ridiculous circumstance for someone who is paying 625 per month for what is supposed to be my home. In the past three weeks, I’ve seen eleven roaches. If you have any doubts as to the number, I encourage you to ask the maintenance man because he actually disposed of the roach carcasses that had been sitting in the utility closet/boiler room near the front door of my apartment.

I have seen roach carcasses all over my apartment, and I have seen live roaches coming out of that utility closet, crawling on the floor, on the side of my bookshelves, and once on my kitchen counter. I should also emphasize that I keep food picked up around my apartment, and I rinse out dirty dishes before putting them in my sink. Also, that roach was definitely too big to have come up through the kitchen sink.

The thing that has been bothering me almost as much as seeing dead roaches and having to kill live ones is the noises they make in my wall. I say “they” with purpose because the sounds are not coming from just one roach. On more than one occasion, I have heard these sounds for several minutes (perhaps 30-60 minutes), heard what sounds like roaches dropping from the ceiling, and then minutes later, seen one, then two, then perhaps three roaches come out from under the door of the utility room. Other times, I just hear them for hours. I should clarify that I hear them in the walls in the kitchen, in the upper portions of the north and west walls. As you can imagine, I have not felt very good about cooking, eating, working, or sleeping in my apartment as of late.

As you probably know, I have called your offices several times and had maintenance out to fill in the gaps where roaches can get in and have had them and the exterminators spray. This has not solved the problem, and if it has slowed it down, it has not slowed it down enough. I want this to stop. Even if you can keep the roaches out of my apartment, you need to do something to keep them out of the walls and out of the building. Isn’t there some kind of baiting program that the exterminators can do to kill the colonies of roaches in the area, or is there a way to keep them from coming into the building?

I really do not want to move. And as you might imagine, if the roaches continue to be a problem, I will not speak well of my experience in this building.

Thank you for your immediate attention to these matters.

Sincerely,
T
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