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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Scary Mouse Prompts $500,000 Demand

FAIRFAX, Va. (CN) - A man who was "so shocked" that he suffered a "pre-heart attack condition" when a mouse jumped onto his breakfast table demands $500,000 from his apartment complex. Sakir Dzirlo "became so shocked that he immediately experienced severe pains in his chest, a shortness of breath and dizziness," he says in his complaint in Fairfax County Court.

Dzirlo says he was eating a meal in his apartment in Skyline Towers, in Falls Church, when the critter jumped on the table. He called 911 and the responders snapped pictures and made notes about the mouse on his medical records, Dizrlo says.

Dzirlo says the jumping mouse incident came after he had lived in poor and infested conditions since 2004. He blames Equity Residential Management, the defendant and owner of the towers.

"Such conditions," he claims, "include lack of sleep from mice tunneling and running behind walls, continuous disinfecting, cleaning and discarding of mice carcasses, tremendous fear from both being bitten and contracting diseases such as salmonella or plague."

The mouse scared him on July 1, 2008, Dzirlo says. A week later, the county cited the apartment for "health and safety menaces," according to the complaint.

The complaint adds: "The county based their decision on investigation and evidence of mouse activity observed in the living spaces of the home and by the trauma and injuries sustained by complainant being shocked to death by a mouse jumping on his breakfast table."

Dzirlo, who did not die, demands $500,000. He is represented by Herbert Rosenblum.

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