Exclusive: Family with nonverbal son relocated amid mouse infestation in Brooklyn apartment
BED-STUY, BROOKLYN (WABC) -- A family has encountered a huge problem as their Brooklyn apartment has become infested with mice.
Their 4-year-old son needs around-the-clock care due to a rare medical condition and now their caregivers are refusing to go inside the apartment with the infestation.
The people who run the building are taking the family to a new apartment.
"It breaks my heart because you have a child and you want the best for him, and I feel like we failed him," mother Yadi Martin said.
Her son Aydin was born with a life-threatening condition and needs 24/7 care.
The 4-year-old is nonverbal but is able to sign. What he has been conveying to his parents is infuriating, they said.
"He's pointing at this leg and I'm like I don't see any boo boo, what is he talking about, the mouse running across his leg," his father Jamaal, said.
The Martins say mice are scurrying around their apartment at all hours.
"He's signing mouse and he's like no sound is coming out," Jamaal said.
They found mouse droppings on Aydin's bed sheets.
"Literally we are in the apartment chasing the mice with vacuums to try and get them out of the apartment," Yadi said.
The couple says the problem started in the spring, inside their apartment at 523 Franklin Avenue in Bed-Stuy.
"The nurses are quitting because the mice are jumping at them," Yadi said.
The building is run by Dalan Management.
In May, Yadi reached out, saying she had caught three mice with traps.
Management has sent out exterminators roughly eight times, who put down traps and patched holes.
When they asked to move to another unit until the problem was rectified, the property management said that because of the lottery status of the apartment, they were unable to.
After Eyewitness News contacted Dalan, they changed their mind, and are relocating the family to another apartment in the building until October 10 while exterminators do daily checks on the Martins' unit.
The couple is determined to keep their little one safe.
"He's been through so so so much," Jamaal said.
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