‘It’s been a horror story’: Rats spilling from home into Florida neighborhood, residents say

The city has announced it will be hiring its own exterminator to help deal with the situation beginning Monday.

The owner bought the house wholesale and says when he started clearing out everything in it, that’s when the rat problem began.

Neighbors said they sometimes see dozens of the vermin out there every night, while some say their car belts have been chewed up and they've spent hundreds of dollars buying rat traps.

"It's been a horror story coming out here, killing them," neighbor Michelle James said. "I know they got the house boarded up and holes covered, so we got a little reprieve. But when they start ripping open those walls or doing the plumbing, we are just in fear of the next wave of attack."