Live rat crawls through S-bend of family's toilet
A couple from South London are too terrified to use their own bathroom after finding a rat swimming inside their toilet bowl.
It is not the first time Margaret, 59, and Keith Woods, 67, who have lived in their home for 27 years, have found a rat in their toilet.
Mrs Woods said she knew the rat was there when she heard movement coming from inside the pipes.
"I went to the loo and I could hear scratching. I jumped up and thought - this time I’m going to watch. I flushed the toilet straight away and went back, leaving the light on.
"It was rearing its ugly head," she said.
Mr and Mrs Woods say they are so afraid of the rat that they repeatedly flush the toilet and run the taps before going to the bathroom.
They have been having problems with rodents in the pipes for eight months and have repeatedly contacted Thames Water to investigate and fix the issue.
"In March I gave Thames Water two weeks to sort it out. We kept hearing scratching and we’d put the lid down. We are petrified to go to the toilet," Mrs Woods said.
It reportedly took Thames Water several months to respond to the Woods' requests for assistance.
A spokesman for the company said, "This is unacceptable and we have let Mr and Mrs Woods down."
He continued, "A CCTV investigation of the sewer was done last week and the network is working as it should. We have also carried out a thorough clean of the sewer pipes around the property and will putting down some poison to help the customer get rid of the problem."
