Police rescue man from home filled with more than 200 rats

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Police rescue man from home filled with more than 200 rats
By Jill Burcum

Minneapolis Star Tribune

MINNEAPOLIS | The call to the police came in at 1 a.m. Thursday and sounded like a supermarket tabloid headline.

A man in the small Iron Range town of Gilbert, Minn., was being eaten alive in his home by rats, the caller said.

Skepticism turned to disbelief when they responded. More than 200 black rats — a colony originating from one pregnant pet-store type of rat that the mentally disabled man had taken in — had overrun the small house.

"In this occupation, you see a lot of things. Nothing really surprises us," said Police Chief Mark Skelton. "You can never say that you've seen it all, because you haven't."

The 47-year-old man, who had been nibbled on a few times but seemed otherwise fine, was taken to a "safe house," Skelton said.

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