Two SF renters were forced to endure nightly chewing and scratching noises inside their wall by a mother raccoon who had crawled in through the exterior of the building and given birth inside, and it took two months for the landlord to resolve it.
As ABC 7’s 7 on Your Side reports, the strange noises started last April, when San Francisco residents Isaac Brodkin and his roommate began hearing loud scratching and chewing coming from inside the walls of their rental apartment. After they reported it to property managers at Kenney & Everest Real Estate, an inspector confirmed raccoons were living inside the wall.
An exterminator sprayed a repellent, which did not work. When the roommates asked management to have the animals removed, they were told the pest control company was not immediately available.
Despite repeated complaints, the problem dragged on for weeks as the sounds grew louder and more destructive. Brodkin said he became so frightened that an animal would break into his bedroom that he started sleeping in the living room and only going into his bedroom to quickly grab clothing.
“The sound just kept getting more and more intense,” Brodkin said, speaking to ABC 7, “just like a horror movie would.”
One day when Brodkin opened his bedroom door, he found a hole chewed through the wall. They were later told that the mother raccoon had entered through an opening in the exterior of the former Zen Buddhist temple building, given birth inside the wall, then broken into the bedroom.
Brodkin and his roommate called San Francisco Animal Care and Control, but officers wouldn’t remove the raccoons because there wasn’t an urgent safety issue.
Tenant rights attorney Rahman Popal told ABC 7 that California law requires landlords to provide tenants with a safe, habitable home and the right to "quiet enjoyment," obligations that would be triggered by a wild animal invading a rental unit.
The management company eventually gave the roommates about $4,600 in reduced rent and moving expenses when the pair ultimately moved out of the unit in mid-June. As they were packing up, an exterminator finally opened the wall to remove the animals. The mother raccoon sadly did not survive, and the baby raccoons had already moved on.
Related: Trio of Baby Raccoons Requires Rescue From Wall at Chase Center
Image: fr0ggy5/Unsplash
