Bed bug saga in Wallaceburg leads to crowdfunding campaign

A bed bug saga in Wallaceburg has led to a crowdfunding campaign in support of an elderly Wallaceburg woman.

Candice Emery launched the GoFundMe campaign, after reading a story about 96-year-old Wallaceburg resident Mary Doherty in The Chatham Daily News (CDN). Doherty had a dispute with her landlord about paying for an exterminator to get rid of a bed bug infestation in her Montgomery Avenue apartment .

“I read the article and it broke my heart,” Emery told the Sydenham Current.

“A couple of comments on the article (from other Facebook users) were made about a GoFundMe page, so I hopped online and created one. I don’t know Mary, but I wanted to help her out any way I could. I’ve never created a GoFundMe page before, but I figured this was the best time to start.”

Since the page was created on Tuesday a total of $625 has been raised.

“The feedback has been great,” Emery said.

“The donations are up to ($625) of my $1,000 goal. I hope to reach beyond that with everyone’s help.”

Reports say Doherty paid $495 to have a pest control company come to her apartment last October to eradicate a bedbug problem. Overall, Doherty says the entire bed bug issue cost her nearly $2,000, as she bought a new bed and a new couch. She also paid to have her belongings moved to storage while the exterminator worked in her apartment, which took approximately two weeks, published reports say.

Doherty told CDN in order to offset the cost of the extermination, she took the $495 off of her November rent payment.

In response, the property management company is working with Doherty on a payment plan and they will not be forcing her out of her home, reports say.

The company says they don’t believe they are responsible to pay for the extermination, something Doherty told CDN she was hoping they would do.

On top of the bed bug ordeal, Doherty says she is missing $850, which was either lost or stolen from her while running errands recently, reports say.

After being inspired to help her out, Emery told the Sydenham Current she hopes to meet Doherty in the near future.

“I’d love to be able to hand the money over to her in person before Christmas,” she said.


– Photo credit: GoFundMe

1 COMMENT

  1. I do not understand why the landlord’s of this property don’t think they’re responsible for paying the exterminator.
    Bed bugs are nasty and can move from one apartment to another thru plumbing and electrical outlets.
    Someone has probably had the bugs, then they travelled
    Shame on this rental company for the stress this has caused this lady!

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