Shitty apartment

I wonder if this apartment is on the market. I hope they don't clean it, what a waste.

Cats rescued from L.B. apartment.

Officials say women kept animals in 1-bedroom unit; most are euthanized.

By Kelly Puente, Staff writer Long Beach Press Telegram 08/21/2007

LONG BEACH - Animal Control officers removed 72 cats from a one-bedroom apartment on Monday after police noticed a strong urine odor wafting from the residence. Police responded to a neighbor dispute call at about 4 p.m. Monday in an apartment complex at 635 E. Ninth St. When they arrived, they found an apartment teeming with roaches, living and dead cats and hundreds of garbage bags filled with trash and cat feces. "The ammonia smell was just overwhelming," said Sgt. Steve Peltier of Long Beach Animal Control, one of several officers working to remove hundreds of trash bags, cat carriers and the rest of the cats on Tuesday. Workers shielded their faces with masks and respirators to block the stench, which had overwhelmed the complex courtyard by mid-afternoon. "I've never seen anything like this in my life," said apartment manager Sue Paré, as she stared at a heap of trash bags crawling with roaches. "Hopefully after people see this they'll spay and neuter their pets."

According to neighbors, the apartment was occupied by a mother in her 70s and daughter in her 40s. Police on Tuesday did not release the names of the two women, who were being detained for a 72-hour psychological evaluation. Two of the neighbors said the women were Heidi and Debbie Hill. Heidi is the older of the two women, they said. Animal Control will begin conducting its own investigation into charges of animal cruelty, adding that the investigation could take from a few weeks to several months. Officers collected 54 live cats and two deceased cats from the 500-square-foot apartment on Monday, said Animal Control Lt. Michelle Quigley.

Some 52 cats had to be euthanized because they were in such bad condition, with problems such as skin and respiratory infections, she said. Two cats were alive at Long Beach Animal Control, Quigley said Tuesday, but were not yet available for adoption. Officers on Tuesday discovered 14 more live cats hiding among the trash, and two more dead cats - one of which had been dead for three years, the women told officers. "They kept it in a plastic container, wrapped in a favorite shirt ...almost mummified," Quigley said. The 14 cats found Tuesday are still being evaluated by Animal Control.

Neighbors described the women as strange and reclusive but said no one had any inkling the women owned so many cats."They told me they had only two cats," Paré said. "They were very odd. Mostly kept to themselves."A strange smell began wafting from the apartment and roaches started to appear a few months after the women moved into the complex in November, neighbors said. Mary Cuevas, who lives in the apartment directly below the women, noticed strong smells and a roach problem. "I'd never had roaches before," said Cuevas, who smelled a urine odor anytime the women opened their kitchen window. The women were nicknamed "The Dumpster Twins" by people who lived in the complex, she said, because they were often seen heading out at night with an empty shopping cart and returning with goods. Cuevas, who said she'd had enough of the stench and roaches, shouted at the women as they were walking by on Monday, telling them to leave the apartment complex. The women in turn, called the police to say that Cuevas was harassing them. She said police came to the complex twice that day after the women called them back a second time. That's when one officer noticed a strong stench coming from the motherand daughter and roaches crawling on the walls and ceiling of their hallway. Police and firefighters were called to the scene, and soon officerswere running out of the apartment gagging and covering their mouths, she said.

For Cuevas and Paré, the discovery was the end of a "long battle" to get the women evicted. The health department had been called to the scene several times, Cuevas said, but the women would either not answer the door or not let them inside. "They would never answer the door," Paré said. The women were in the process of being evicted because they had not paid their rent in several months, said Paul Chandler, one of the owners of the complex. They were served a three-day eviction notice on August 1, he said, but were given more time when a judge ruled the notice was invalid because it was not signed. After receiving several complaints from residents, Chandler obtained keys to the apartment and had planned to check it last weekend. But the women kept postponing, claiming they were ill, he said. Quigley speculated that residents may not have noticed how bad the stench was because the women rarely opened their windows. Piles of trash bags may have blocked windows and insulated the smell, authorities said.Officials and residents alike were wondering on Tuesday how the women could have lived in such conditions. "How do people deteriorate to that level?" Quigley asked. "It's just incredibly sad."