But patrons of the theater who had close encounters with the rodents are staying away.
By JARED GOLDBERG-LEOPOLD
Published January 11, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Walk up to the guest services counter of the big-screen theaters at BayWalk and ask if there is still a worry about rats. The man behind the desk will murmur into his walkie-talkie: Someone is inquiring about the "Nemo problem."
The issue, which the theater chain's top executive insists is over, has its own code name.
Nonetheless, patrons will not be seeing any more rats at the BayWalk Muvico theaters, management promised late last week.
After at least three reports of rats in movie theaters during December and the first week of January, the state Division of Hotels and Restaurants dispatched inspectors, who on Thursday checked the cineplex's concession areas and three of the 20 theaters. They found no signs of rodents but acknowledged that in such a big building there could be plenty of places to hide.
"This was a situation where a couple of rats got through the wall," said Hamid Hashemi, the president of the Fort Lauderdale-based Muvico chain. "The problem is already taken care of."
The movie theater complex stepped up its pest control efforts after a rat was seen in the building in late December, said Lisa Brock, a spokeswoman for the Sembler Co., which owns BayWalk. In addition to calling in exterminators, the company buried a steel-mesh fence around the building and hunted for any holes rats could climb through.
But Debbie Darbois already has had enough. Darbois, who said a rat tugged at her pant leg during a Jan. 4 showing of Calendar Girls, doesn't want to set foot in the theater, even after a manager offered her complimentary tickets for her troubles.
"I'm not squeamish, and I'm not a little wimp, but it just weirded me out big time," said Darbois, a 54-year-old paralegal who works in St. Petersburg. "I said, "Why would I want free tickets? I don't even ever want to come back in here again."'
After seeing the rat, Darbois screamed and changed seats. When the movie ended, Darbois said she returned to the back row of Auditorium 1, where she had been sitting. Near her old seat, Darbois saw about five rats scurry away.
Another woman described a closer encounter. Susan Skille of Historic Kenwood said a rat ran out of a vent and past her head during a Jan. 1 showing of Something's Gotta Give in Auditorium 10.
"I just freaked out, I screamed bloody murder," Skille said. "Why would they even open up their doors knowing they have a rodent problem?"
But Hashemi said the company never considered closing down any part of the theater because of rodent problems. He said some patrons might be overreacting because of media reports of rats in the theaters.
"Someone drops popcorn in an aisle, then you think it's a rat," Hashemi said. "I think it's a figment of their imagination at this point.
"I'm not putting the people down," he continued. "We had a problem, we took care of it immediately. Did it happen again? I don't have any evidence of it."
The state inspectors found nothing when they examined the areas near the concessions on Nov. 25 and again on Thursday. The inspectors also searched auditoriums 1, 2 and 11, but they have enforcement authority only over the parts of the theater involved in food production.
Sometimes it takes a while to clear large buildings, said Geoff Luebkemann, director of the Division of Hotels and Restaurants. The BayWalk Muvico complex is more than 80,000 square feet.
"There's a lot of places rodents could be in a building that size," said Luebkemann, whose agency shuts down 150 to 175 food establishments each year. "For a building of that size, it wouldn't be unusual to take a number of treatments."
Both Darbois and Skille said a manager acknowledged an ongoing problem with rodents, but both were dissatisfied with the response.
Darbois said it would have been different "if the manager would have acted surprised. I just feel like it's an injustice because they don't care or they don't seem to care."
The movie chain will coach managers of the BayWalk theater - where there has been a lot of turnover - to ensure they react sensitively to customer complaints, said Hashemi, the Muvico president.
"When our manager doesn't do something right, that's a reflection of me personally," he said.
