Family perturbed by rat that makes nightly appearances in their toilet

A family from Sutton in south London have been suffering from a large rat coming up their toilet when they go to the bathroom for nine months. Margaret and Keith Woods have lived in her house for 27 years and have experienced rat problems in the past. However things became really serious last October while they were on holiday.



Mrs Woods, 59, received a panicked phone call from her daughter, who was pregnant at the time, telling her that a rat had escaped out of the toilet and into the bathroom until her son managed to get rid of it. Since then a rat, which they have named Roland, has been popping his head out most nights much to the horror of the Woods family.

Mrs Woods has contacted both Sutton Council and Thames Water but has become really frustrated with the lack of a solution and delays on the part of Thames Water. Last Thursday she even managed to video Roland’s nightly appearance in the U-bend. Mrs Woods said: "Thursday morning at quarter-to-one I went to the loo and I could hear scratching - I jumped up and thought - this time I’m going to watch. I flushed the toilet straight away and went back into the toilet leaving the light on. It was rearing its ugly head.



"In March I gave [Thames Water] two weeks to sort it out. We kept hearing scratching and we’d put the lid down. We are petrified to go to the toilet. We flush the toilet and run the tap to be able to go to the toilet." A spokesperson for Thames Water apologised for delays in conducting a CCTV investigation of the sewage network. They said: "This is unacceptable and we have let Mr and Mrs Woods down. We are very sorry for the delay and must do better in future."

With two videos.