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CBS 2 Gets Results After Overflowing Trash, Vermin Plague South Shore Alleys

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Heaping piles of trash, mice, and rats made for a less-than-pretty picture in South Shore, where residents reached out to CBS 2 – desperate for a fix.

CBS 2's Tara Molina was getting results Wednesday night.

"The smell is unforgiving," one man said.

"Anybody that knows if you live inside a smell, you become numb to it," a woman said.

And residents said it has turned into rodent food.

"You can catch them at any time running from one building to the next," the woman said.

The residents were uncomfortable showing their faces on camera and talking about what they called "an overflow of vermin," but they were serious about making their voices heard, because they are sick and tired of it.

"At some point you can see four, five, 10, 15" – inside the apartment," the woman said.

Every alley in their complex had overflowing dumpsters Tuesday night. We checked.

"It's disgusting," the man said.

So Molina took questions to Parkways Apartments' managers, who residents said wouldn't address their concerns. Eventually, Molina connected with Related Management Company Tuesday night.

They said there was an issue with the trash vendor, but assured me they'd get this cleared and cleaned on Wednesday.

So we came back to make sure that happened. And sure enough, late Wednesday afternoon, people who live in the complex got what they said they waited weeks for.

"It would be very, very, very nice not to have so many mice and rats," a woman said.

Residents say this isn't the first time this has been an issue here, but they're hoping it's the last.

Molina also got in touch with Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th). Her office doesn't have complaints on file, but said they're going to look into the issues being reported here.

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