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Lawrence Cabrera’s box spring and mattress show signs of severe bedbug infestation Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011.
By J. Patrick Coolican (contact) 
Published Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011 | 5:31 p.m.
Updated Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011 | 4:54 p.m.
Beyond the Sun
J. Patrick Coolican
Lawrence Cabrera has been complaining for months to the management of the Siegel Suites Twain II location about bedbugs.
Finally, last week he called the Southern Nevada Health District, which found “significant bedbug infestation” at his studio apartment this week, according to a document he showed me. A Sun photographer documented the obvious infestation.
Cabrera, 62, said he was injured while working for the Union Pacific Railroad a decade ago and is on federal disability. He uses a wheelchair and suffers from nerve damage and asthma.
He’s a veteran of the U.S. Army.
Once the health department official told Siegel Suites management it had 14 days to eradicate the bedbugs, Cabrera was given a to-do list before the exterminators arrive Monday. He needs to bag his belongings, sweep, dust and vacuum his unit.
But of course, he’s unable to do so because of his disability. He says the management told him it will serve an eviction notice if he doesn’t do what’s required.
His family is in Colorado; he has a woman who comes by once per month to deliver groceries. Cabrera said that since he moved to Siegel Suites in February 2010, the ceiling of his bathroom collapsed, and he endured a break-in attempt while he was in the unit.
His rent is $650 per month.
When I alerted the health department about the threat of eviction, a spokeswoman said that on Monday morning she would be contacting Elder Protective Services and Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.
Some background on bedbugs: As the Sun noted in 2008, they were mostly eradicated by the chemical agent DDT after World War II, but began to surface again in the late 1990s and are now thriving. They are six-legged, reddish-brown insects that are nocturnal, feasting on as much as three times their weight in a single human “blood meal.” They are famously difficult to exterminate, hiding in the tiniest crevices and surviving all manner of chemical agents. They are also highly mobile, so it’s possible they aren’t isolated in Cabrera’s unit.
I went to the Siegel Suites office to speak to a manager Saturday to ask if this is an appropriate way to treat someone, especially a disabled veteran, but the manager was not in.
I left a message, and will update you when they get back to me.
Update: I’ve been in contact with a manager from Siegel Suites, and the eviction notice is going to be delayed while we get Cabrera some help.
Meanwhile, a few readers have come forward to volunteer. Joe Restifo, who specializes in bedbug eradication and was profiled in the Las Vegas Sun in 2009, has offered to prepare the apartment for eradication, and if need be, to do the eradication himself or enlist the help of other companies if that’s required. Thank you to Siegel Suites for reconsidering the fate of Cabrera, and a bigger thank you to Restifo and readers who have offered to help.
Update: A Siegel Suites executive called Monday and said they had contacted Jewish Family Services Agency to get Cabrera help, but that Cabrera refused their assistance. They also noted that they had offered to move Cabrera to their location on Boulder Highway so he could be in a more handicap-accessible unit and said they would have paid for his moving expenses, but he refused.
Cabrera says Jewish Family Services never came to his apartment. Of the offer to move him, Cabrera said he was reluctant because his current location is less than a block from both a grocery store and his bank. On Boulder Highway, he would have been far from both.
Siegel Suites said Cabrera had refused entry to the company’s designated exterminator.
Cabrera told me they did spray once, but the situation only worsened. In point of fact, the bed needs to be hermetically sealed and disposed of, and the entire unit needs significant eradication.
Having spent considerable time with Cabrera, I’m sure he can be stubborn and is not the easiest person to help because he fears being taken advantage of and losing control over his situation, which is quite understandable for a man now disabled who once did physical tasks for the Army and a railroad.
As the original column noted, we left a message for Siegel Suites Saturday. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t run something without first speaking to them, but the situation was urgent: Cabrera faced an eviction notice Monday morning, and we thought it was important to get the word out and get Cabrera some help, so it ran without input from Siegel Suites. We stand by that decision.
As of now, a legal nonprofit and the health department are working to resolve the issue. As noted, we’ve received generous offers of help from several people in the community. I’ll be writing in the coming weeks about the entire situation as it is resolved and Cabrera is living in a bedbug-free domicile.
Mr. Coolican: If I can assist Mr. Cabrera in any way to move his belongings please contact me through my account with the Sun. I would be honored to help.
A multi-millionaire slum lord and his legion of "apartment manager" lackeys ganging up on the most vulnerable victims in society, not exactly news but definitely news worthy.
Mr. Coolican you are a true champion of decency and justice. Kudos to you sir.
Nice PR for your hotels Steve. How stupid to let this guy suffer like this. Siegel Suites must have some ability to help this guy out instead of the BS response they gave him. What a crock businessman..
Thanks for offers of help. I'm going to try to organize a help team earlyish tomorrow. Email me if u can help.
700 Las Vegas Blvd, Seigel Suites has bed bug problem, too. My mentally incapacitated friend lives there. You can see the bites on her back and legs. Becuase she is partially retarded she can't drive. Therefore, she cant move.
bbtbrain
What a good person you are. But remember: all of Mr. Cabrera's belongings may very well be infested, too. You will have to look carefully at everything, especially things he needs to take with him, such as clothes. The clothes should be bagged and then washed in very hot water. He may have to get rid of some things or else he will just be taking the bugs with him. All the bedding should just be tossed.
With so many people struggling these days, and for people like Mr. Cabrera and Lucy's friend, that is why places like the Salvation Army and GOodwill stores are so popular. One should ALWAYS wash anything purchased at these places before using them. Keep them bagged up until they can be washed. Buying furniture at these places is a crap shoot. At my apt complex now, we are not allowed to purchase certain things like mattresses and couches. A word to the wise: always check anything and everything.
As a footnote: Mr. Cabrera only has someone come in once a month with groceries? Are there not any agencies that could provide him with more help than that in Nevada? Either a federally funded program or a State funded program for the elderly and disabled? This is something that should be checked into.
Lucy: DOes your friend have help come in?
Best thing is to throw out all but the most important items, then subject those item kept (even documents) to high heat 150 degrees for 2 days. Put clothes in a dryer (at the suites) for 4 hours.
Those bugs can jump on peoples clothes Mr Cameraman.
Washing may not kill and bugs can infest washer. Best bet, just buy new clothes for the guy, it will be cheaper.
There has got to be "the rest of the story". Even neighbors in a complex like this will help. I know, I have been there, done that. Tenants refuse to leave for a few hours for spraying, or even refuse to let people in to change the air filters. Before this bed bug infestation, people carried roaches with them. If you read up, you find that it takes several thousand dollars to get a handle on this problem. It takes full cooperation from all to get it handled. No property owner wants this, and experience also tells me that "meals on wheels" will deliver food, this man probably has every gaming membership. Why wouldn't this person chose to live closer to family?
I would throw out all his clothes and bedding. Maybe the red cross can get involved on this one and provide some help. I think you have to be very careful because the bugs could easily get on your clothes and then bam, you bring them home.
I still find it hard to believe that Steve Siegel wants the negative publicity associated with this by not offering help. Good luck to anyone getting a room at that location.
"Some background on bedbugs: As the Sun noted in 2008, they were mostly eradicated by the chemical agent DDT after World War II, but began to surface again in the late 1990s and are now thriving."
That isn't all that is thriving these days; illegal immigrants are carrying infectious diseases into our country daily and nothing is being done to curb their infestation that they carry with them when they enter our country illegally.
It is sad that Americans are forced to deal infectious diseases and bugs that were eradicated years ago but what can one expect with open border policies and zero enforcement thereafter America has. We'll be dealing with all kinds of aliments as a result of this and there is nothing being done except throwing more money at problems that will never be fixed until the borders are closed and illegals are forced to enter America legally.
While Siegel seemed to have good intentions when he bagan taking over these properties from the valley's worst slumlord of all time, Robert Bigelow. There was a need for short term rentals, where residents were treated fairly. While Bigelow was notorious for operating his properties in violation of numerous Nevada landlord/tenant laws, it seemed that Siegal was trying to change things.
Maybe he has lost touch with these properties in his focus on The Artisan and Rumor, but Siegal Suites has become Budget 2.0. Illegally locking tenants out, entering units without permission, even having security invade residents homes, threaten them with tazers and other threats of violence, hold them captive under various false allegations that are so unsubstantiated that it would make you cry.
Many of their residents, like Cabrera, aren't able to find other suitable housing withing their budget, so must simply grim and bear the horrid conditions Siegel provides. Even the ones who decide to take the Property to court are met, not with the relief mandated by the NRS, but by a Judge who sees evicting a resident without cause as the path of least resistance, and the providing justice for the the truly victimized, like Cabrera, simply not worth the effort.
I would rather go back to using ddt than to hear about all these infestations. I thank God it isn't happening to me.
Good point about thrift stores. I buy lots of clothes and misc. and need to be more careful about possibly exposing myself to bedbugs.
Because legal visitors to this country are checked for bedbugs and lice, right?
FYI itstoohot... The bedbugs were never gotten rid of in EUROPE. It's the tourists bringing them in. About three years ago, alot of the room maids were complaining about this, and I'm talking about some of the best hotels in Las Vegas. I have a friend that handles lots of tourist luggage. Guess what??? He contracted bed bugs, but the maids told me what to look for and he was able to handle the problem before it got out of hand. Here's some sage advice, if you work around European tourists, keep your matresses covered with a plastic material that can be bought almost anywhere. If you buy new matresses, DON'T take the sealed plastic off.
European tourists bring them in? Great. Bad enough they have absolutely no clue about tipping protocol in the United States and regularly "skip out" on tipping thinking it's included in their bill...now they bring bed bugs.
Wiggina..."illegal immigrants are carrying infectious diseases into our country daily"
This is nothing new. This has been going on since the first illegals landed at Plymouth Rock and started spreading small pox among the residents.
Ornelas: and your point is? I don't care if anyone is Hispanic, black, yellow, green, pink, white, or any other color or country of origin he is an American and he isn't an illegal immigrant. What liberals fail to understand is their open border "Dream Act" only enables more infestation of many other bugs and infectious diseases that America eradicated many years ago that Mexico cherishes for their own citizens. I've never been to Mexico and I have no desire to go to Mexico, they have nothing to offer except ill will and sicknesses that I prefer to have.
I am sick and tired of liberals force feeding their sick repugnant immoral choices down America's throat along with their no good for nothing lazy pathetic cesspool followers. The fact remains, the gentleman in this article, is just another example of how liberals could care a less about our military and our veterans. Liberals would rather give freebies and take care of their human cesspool than Americans who fought for Americas rights.
Eastern Europe is more bed bug prone than Mexico, etc.
This situation is caused by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the talk radio teabag crowd who want war, but don't want to pay for it and help it's victims at home and abroad. Does Bush, Chenny and Rumsfeld live with bedbugs? Of course not. War mongers like John McCain live in Phoenix penthouses. (He has 7 homes.)
(If traveling by car, leave all your clothes in the car trunk in those large zip lock plastic blanket bags(assuming your clothes are not valuable.) In the morning, (assuming your are not bitten) get one change of clothes from your car, shower, change and leave. Put dirty clothes in a garbage bag with a twist tie, leave in hot trunk.)
Baffling comments, as usual. This story has literally nothing to do with immigration. That's not why there's a bedbug infestation. There's some "sick repugnant immoral" folks around, but the commenter is looking in the wrong place.
Note the update above. Thanks to Joe Restifo, a bedbug specialist, for offering to help out. And Siegel Suites has reconsidered.
"...illegal immigrants are carrying infectious diseases into our country daily and nothing is being done to curb their infestation that they carry with them when they enter our country illegally."
its2hot -- it's one thing to be an ignorant bigot. It's quite another to brag about it, as your suggestion of bedbugs' origin does. Try educating yourself starting @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedbug#Hist... -- they've been with humanity for thousands of years, the speculation is they first came to this country from Europe, and the "herbs and seeds of cannabis" is one traditional method of repelling or killing them.
"A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand." -- Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872-1970), "A History of Western Philosophy"
Wow this is gross. I would caution anyone who is renting in one of these fully furnished no lease buildings. Too bad someone couldn't call the health department sooner. Its a shame to see someone suffer. But I will also say $650 a month for a dump like that seems too high.
I am also just as shocked at some of the comments above. Very sad what some people can come up with. Its very troubling to have this bigotry in our discourse.
Go get them Patrick! Good job. We need more reporters like you!
Frank the BedBug Chaser again and I saw this in Pest Management & Green Lodging. There is now an economical way for hotels, exterminators or anyone for that matter to use clean 100% Chemical Free & Green electric heat to get rid of bedbugs
http://www.mypmp.net/pest-mgmt-content/n...
or http://www.greenlodgingnews.com/bedbug-c...
I wonder why the Sun buried this story about this scumbag landlord. The very next day this story wasnt even on the radar as the most viewed or commented about.....interesting!!!