Rats eat part of woman's car

A Suffolk woman returned from a holiday to find rats had eaten through parts of her car causing damage put at £1,200. Jill Delaney, 74, from Kentford, said the electrics had gone, rubber was stripped from pedals and the car had to be towed to a garage to be fixed.

A spokesman from her insurance company, Saga, said: "Rats appear to have got into the car and caused... damage." Mrs Delaney's five-year-old Ford Fusion was towed to a garage in Newmarket. "It took three weeks to fix because they kept finding more damage," Mrs Delaney said.



Robin Wiley, who has been a pest controller in Cambridgeshire for more than 70 years, said Mrs Delaney's rat problem was not something he had come across before. "I would expect mice, or even squirrels to cause that kind of damage, but it's not the sort of thing rats would normally do," he said.

However, Mrs Delaney was adamant the damage was caused by rats. She said: "There were rat droppings everywhere. I know a rat dropping when I see one." Mrs Delaney said she was worried it could happen again. "Pest controllers told me rats hate creosote, so I've filled a cat litter tray with the stuff and put it under the car. I've also put out burnt toast because I hear they hate that too," she added.