BRIGHTON, Colo. — A new Brighton resident is speaking out after he said his apartment complex failed to properly respond to a major cockroach infestation that he noticed the first night he moved in.
Mitchell Laurienzo moved from Miami to the Solaire Apartments in Brighton. He said he signed the lease while on the move and everything looked fine until he woke up in the middle of the night during his first evening in the apartment in late June.
"I woke up around midnight to get some water. And there were literally hundreds of cockroaches in the kitchen," Laurienzo said. "I was kind of terrified to be honest."
He checked his family into a nearby hotel and has been staying there for the past week. He said the nearly $800 cost, including prorated nights at the apartment, have not been reimbursed by the managers at Solaire.
"They refuse to reimburse me for the apartment or for... the hotel nights, because they said that it's a safe and healthy living environment," Laurienzo said. "It's unsafe. It's unhealthy for myself, my family and my small dogs."
Laurienzo said that there is a fumigator expected to assess the apartment on Wednesday. But the additional expenses, he said, are bugging him as well.
"It's all expenses that are there. I'm on a budget for it. I didn't budget for this," Laurienzo explained. "It's upsetting. You work hard for your money."
Denver7 reached out to Solaire Apartments for comment but did not hear back.