A routine shopping trip to J.C. Penney at the Legends at Village West in Kansas City, Kansas took an unexpected turn for Basehor mom KiAnn Spradlin.
"I just happened to look down to one of the items I was going to try on and noticed what looked like a piece of dirt," she explained.
But a closer look revealed something else entirely: that fleck of dirt turned out to be an engorged bedbug.
"I thought, I gotta get out of here. It creeped me out," she said.
But first she brought it to J.C. Penney's attention. She says their response was even more shocking than her discovery.
"I heard that employee talking to what I assume is the manager and I heard that lady say, 'Well we get them here all the time because of the people and the clothes we have here. We ignore it; we don't do anything about it'," Spradlin said she overhead at the KCK store.
So she hopped on Facebook to warn her friends and family. That post ended up getting shared more than 2,000 times and counting.
"They do have a lot of clothes that probably come in from different places and that sort of thing, but that reaction to a customer's concerns about something that could be serious was kind of disappointing," she said. "A lot of times, I just being stuff home and put it in my kids' closet and that's the end of it. And I think it is going to change way I shop."
41 Action News reached out to JCPenney to learn the legitimacy of Spradlin's claims. Here's what the store released in a statement:
We have had no history of bed bugs at this location and while we're unable to verify if the photo was taken in our store, we take all such situations seriously. As a precaution, we hired a pest control bed bug expert to inspect our Legends @ Village West location last week. Thankfully, the inspection revealed no trace of bed bugs in our store. We will continue to work with local experts to ensure our store remains pest-free.
Blue Beetle Pest Management treats nearly 2,000 metro homes and businesses for bedbugs every single year. While owner Mitch Shipman has never heard of bedbugs infesting a department store, he has this advice for anyone worries about the creepers sneaking into their purchases.
"I would suggest putting them in the light heat cycle in your dryer before you bring it into the house, and throw away the bag. That will help solve that problem," said Shipman.
That's something Spradlin says she'll be vigilant about from here on out.
"I don't want to be super paranoid or hypochondriac type, but to be aware is important," said Spradlin. "I never was aware before this. I never thought about it. I will be now."
One of the most common ways for bedbugs to cling on to their next victim is via hotel rooms. Watch the video below for killer advice from Blue Beetle on how to prevent the creepers from taking over your home.
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Terra Hall can be reached at terra.hall@kshb.com.
You can also follow her on Twitter.
