Anonymous

On Friday evening, September 14, Bill Stewart and Tom Pirie rented room #254 in the American Travel Inn, located at S. 515 Grand Ave., Pullman, WA 99163. Bill arranged to rent Room 254 and paid for it with his credit card, paying an additional fee for the two double beds, to allow two people to use the room. We had traveled to Pullman with our friend Mark Ufkes, in his small van RV. He stayed in the van that night. Tom brought bags into the room, and since it was quite late, went straight to bed. We were told that it was the last room available in the motel. Bill slept in the second double bed in the room. At about 8:30 on Saturday morning, since Mark Ufkes had parked his van in the motel parking lot, we invited him up to our room. He laid down on the bed Tom had slept in, to watch TV, while Tom was getting ready. When Mark got up from laying on the bed, he noticed a bug on the pillow where he had his head resting. He looked carefully at it and stated that it looked like a bedbug. He told us that if we squished it and it had blood inside, then it was a bed bug. I gathered a Kleenex tissue and squished it, and it was full of blood. Since he had managed a resort on the coast, he began pulling up the corner sheets and we started seeing these bugs in various stages of growth all over the sheets. We counted at least 7-8 bugs in Tom's bed and a similar number of bedbugs in Bill Stewart’s bed as well. Mark then went on-line and showed us pictures of bedbugs on the Internet confirming that these were indeed bedbugs. The larger adult bugs were full of blood, and there were many smaller bugs at various stages of their life cycle in each bed as well. We called the manager and she arrived. She stated at first that they were not bedbugs, then after showing her more and more of them, and having found them in both beds, and showing her the blood stains, she finally acknowledged that they were bedbugs and she would get the manager. She stated that they had never had this issue before. Later, she admitted that actually, they had had the problem previously. The manager came to the room and he stated that it was our problem because we should have told them about the bedbugs last night. He refused to refund our payment, acted like the bedbugs were not important, not would he assure us that he would not rent out the room again that night. Since this was a football weekend, we knew that some unsuspecting Cougar fans would rent this room out immediately, if they had a chance. There was also evidence on the pillow covers of old blood stains as well as the current blood stains that we discovered. Once the manager made it clear that he would not refund our money or assure us that he would not rent the room out again, and seeing how this was the last room available during a Cougar Football weekend, we called Whitman County Public Health. No one answered, so we called Pullman Police. Officer Ryan McNannay responded to our call, looked at both beds and acknowledged the infestation. He then met with the owners/managers of the building and discussed the problem. Eventually, after about 30 minutes of talking with the daughter of the couple who manage the motel, she agreed to refund the money that Bill Stewart had paid for the room but she would not make any commitment to not rent the room out again until the issue is resolved. The case is #18-P09138. We had to travel to a store, buy large bags and put all of our clothing and gear inside these bags. We then went to the WSU Rec Center, bagged the clothing we were wearing and spent time in the hot tub there before showering.

• Bedbugs Found
• Requested Refund