Tulsa Family Finally Gets Closure After Decade-Long Battle With Bat Infestation

A Tulsa family says they are finally getting closure after a decade of dealing with home repairs and lawsuits related to an infestation of hundreds of bats.

The couple says they had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to clean up the problem they didn’t know about until after they bought the house.

Mike and Sheryl Fritts thought they were purchasing their dream home in 2015. It took less than a day for them to figure out it was actually a house of horrors.

The couple says they paid more in repairs from water damage and the bat infestation than the actual cost of the house.

The Fritts's couldn't wait to move into their new home. But that excitement didn’t last.

"It was a complete shock that within 12 hours of moving in, we've got water coming in literally four bedrooms of the house," Mike said.

They used towels to soak up water pouring inside the home. That was just the beginning. The family says they started to find rodents around the house. Then, bedbugs turned out to be bat bugs, which led to the discovery of hundreds of bats living inside their walls.

"If you can just imagine the tapping in your walls as you sleep," Sheryl said.

The Fritts's say bat droppings were also found soaked into the drywall and insulation of the home.

"We needed to take the entire second floor down to the studs. Our kids' bedrooms were demolished, the carpet was pulled up, all this stuff had to be moved out. We literally rebuilt the entire second floor," Mike said.

The infestation was so bad that the couple had to strip the outside bricks off their house. Markings show how much of the droppings had built up inside the walls of the house.

The couple says the damage is shocking because they got an inspection, and the previous owner told them the house was fine. So they sued the seller, saying he should have disclosed the infestation.

Now, after years of bat removal and rebuilding, things are finally quiet. The Fritts's say they now want to make their house feel like a forever home—even if it's a decade behind schedule.

"Definitely looking forward to putting this chapter behind us, having our family and friends over, and celebrating the holidays in the house we thought we bought back in 2015," Mike said.

The only bats the couple has to see now are in the form of decorations around the house. They hope it stays that way.

The couple says they were reimbursed about 90 percent of what they spent on repairs. Mike wants to make sure no other family has to go through this trouble. He plans to start a website about what to watch out for and wants to meet with lawmakers to see if laws can be changed to allow punitive damages in these situations.