Birds on Bechelli: Restoration company, insurance agent react to bizarre bird invasion
REDDING, Calif. — On Wednesday, KRCR shared the wild story of birds invading a Redding couple's house while they were out of town.
On Thursday, we followed up with the company that came to clean up the mess and a local insurance agent with knowledge of the situation.
Servpro is the restoration group responsible for cleaning Gary and Patti Reitemeyer's Bechelli Lane home. They've been hard at work since the bird invasion first happened on Apr. 22. The owner of Servpro, Doug Williams, told KRCR that he's done some crazy work in his 30 years on the job. However, he has never seen something as bizarre as this. He described the situation as "apocalyptic," and he and his son, Cody, who works for the company, are simply befuddled by what happened.
"We've done pretty much any infestation you can imagine," said the elder Williams. "We've done rat infestation, bat infestation, skunks, squirrels...you name it. But this is the first time we've done something like this; where birds actually infested the inside of the home in the quantities that they did."
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KRCR asked both Doug and Cody if they had a theory for why the birds would do this.
"Follow the leader," Doug said, chuckling. "I'm curious if there was a weather event or something that startled them into flying in through the chimney."
Cody agreed with his Dad and said he couldn't believe the damage the birds did so quickly. "When I first walked in, I thought they [the Reitemeyer's] had been gone for maybe a week or something. But it only took a day. So yeah, pretty crazy."
Doug Williams said Servpro will remain at the house for the rest of this week. He admitted that this particular restoration process will be extensive.
We also spoke with a Redding insurance agent on Thursday. He told us that most insurance companies have exclusions in their homeowner policies for small animals like rats or squirrels because it's nearly impossible to calculate the risk of an incident involving one.
As for whether he thinks State Farm will make an exception for the Reitemeyer's case, the agent told us it's unlikely; if State Farm goes against what's written in their policy, it could create a slippery slope of outcomes with their other clients.
Despite this, Gary Reitemeyer reinforced with KRCR his desire to find legal help for him and his wife. He joked that State Farm should probably change its slogan—he doesn't believe a "good neighbor" would leave them in this poor position.
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