Gran, 54, forced to become rat catcher and sleep in her CAR after rodents invade her ‘dream bungalow’

A GRAN has been forced to sleep in her car after a plague of “sewer rats” invaded her dream home.

Desperate Paula Cooper says she spends cold nights huddled under blankets in her Nissan Juke after her council bungalow in Leicestershire was overrun with rodents.

SnapperSKA poorly gran spends nights sleeping in her Nissan Juke after ‘sewer rats’ infested her dream home[/caption]

SnapperSKPaula Cooper has become an unwilling rodent expert after the pests made a nest beneath her TV cabinet and chewed apart electrical cables[/caption]

And in a bid to drive the pests from her property, she’s rigged up every room with traps, poison and detectors as she becomes an unwilling rat catcher.

She told Sun Online the nightmare began shortly after she moved into the property.

The 54-year-old, a former carer, spotted a huge dark grey rat in her kitchen as she moved the cooker to clean behind it.

“It was horrible. I screamed. Two days later, a rat came out of nowhere and ran across my hand,” she said.

“I felt physically sick.”

Paula suffers from asthma, arthritis, fibromyalgia, depression and anxiety already – and said her creepy visitors have left her “struggling to cope”.

As the problem has worsened, she’s filled her car with blankets so she can sleep outside rather than return to the house in Braunstone.

“At least I felt safe there and out of harm’s way, but I still couldn’t get a good night’s sleep,” she said.

Paula slammed Leicester City Council for failing to help – and says she believes the rats have crawled up from the sewer pipes serving three communal drains.

She has seen seven inside and in her garden in recent months.

“They still seem to be everywhere. They scratch, they squeak, they squeal and even if you can’t see them you can feel their presence,” she said.

“They have bitten through TV cables, they pee everywhere and the stench is awful, they’ve chewed my carpet behind the sofa and they nest under the TV cabinet.

“They’ve chewed through the plug wire of my telly and the aerial wire.

“They are such pests and the council are doing very little to get rid of them. I’m at my wits’ end.”

Paula has refused to let her family visit because she worries for her two-year-old granddaughter’s safety.

“It makes me feel dirty because they’re in my home and they stink,” she said.

“Despite my poor health I keep the place neat, clean and tidy.

“I’ve put down traps, poison and detectors, all at my own expense, but the rats are still present.”

A spokesperson for Leicester City Council said: “We sympathise with Ms Cooper’s situation and are working to get it resolved, including having visited her home to discuss the options available to her.

“She declined an offer of temporary accommodation while we deal with the infestation, and we are assisting her on how to make an insurance claim to replace the damaged furnishings.

“Repairs were carried out last week to a drain thought to be at the source of the rat problem, and our pest control team will be making a follow-up visit to check if any further work is needed.”

SnapperSKPaula says she’s had no help from the council and doesn’t know where to turn[/caption]

SnapperSKAnd she’s stopped family coming over because she fears for the health of her little granddaughter – and worries people may think she’s ‘dirty’. Pictured is blue bags of poison in the loft[/caption]

SnapperSKThe gran says moving into the bungalow was initially a dream – but her physical and mental health has since dramatically worsened[/caption]

SnapperSKShe spends her benefits on poison and traps in a bid to drive the rats out[/caption]