Rats crawling inside her walls, feces all over the place, and a stench so bad, it was making her sick.
A Scottsdale grandmother tells us - it's a living nightmare. And her own, private hell has only gotten worse -- all because of roof rats.
76-year-old Kathy Marcil and her family are blaming management at the Pueblo Norte Senior Living Facility in Scottsdale. But it's not because of what they did - it's because of what this family says they didn't do.
"I had to move out in one day," Kathy explains.
For three years, she lived in Pueblo Norte and for most of that time, everything was fine, but things changed around Thanksgiving.
"All of a sudden, my car...it was like a casino! You won the jackpot. All the lights came on!"
Kathy took her Mazda to the mechanic where she was told a roof rat had done a lot of damage -- so much so - the insurance company said it was totaled.
But that's not the only place the roof rats were. They were inside her walls, in her clothes, in her dishwasher, even in her bed.
"I could feel it vibrating again and I thought, oh it works again. So I'd go for the switch and what I found out later was that the mattress was filled with rats and urine, and they were going back and forth while I was there."
"I think the fact that she was sleeping with rats was absolutely horrifying as her daughter," explains Jackie Fretto.
What Fretto saw inside her mom's home still shocks her. But what she finds even more unbelievable is what she calls "neglect" from Pueblo Norte's management, Five Star Senior Living.
"They never had professionals go in and look, never offered to move her out, never even came and look at her house until my brother came down there...I shudder to think that if we hadn't helped her, she'd probably still be there. They never helped her one bit."
ABC15 did reach out to Five Star Senior Living for their side of the story, but we did not hear back.
Kathy says she has lost most of her belongings, has had to pay for attorneys, and is now in debt because of this situation. Because of that, she's suing Five Star to try and get back some of that money she claims she has lost.
