By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
DOWNTOWN — A teary-eyed Michigan mom announced plans to sue the Waldorf-Astoria Thursday, becoming the third plaintiff to accuse the historic hotel of infecting them with bedbugs.
Christine Drabicki, 44, said she and her husband, David Drabicki, stayed at the Waldorf last May, as part of an all-expense-paid trip from the Allstate Insurance company, which was rewarding them for exceptional productivity at their Michigan Allstate agency.
"It was something that my husband worked all year to get – we were extremely excited," Drabicki explained at a press conference, held at the downtown offices of her lawyer, Alan Schnurman, Thursday morning.
But when the couple woke up from the first night of their dream vacation to the Big Apple, they found themselves covered with itchy red bites, Drabicki said.
"I was looking through the sheets and I found blood," recalled Drabicki, who admits she didn’t see any critters in the bed. "We called housekeeping and she said, you know, ‘We have a bedbug problem, but I can send the chemist up,’ and I thought that was a little unusual."
Drabicki said the hotel upgraded the couple to a fancier room, but she was disturbed to find that their luggage had been left in the allegedly infested suite throughout the day, while they attended a company-sponsored trip to Yankee Stadium.
Drabicki said they were never advised to wash the contents of their luggage, although the company did offer to do so, and a couple of days after they returned home to Michigan, it was already too late.
"A couple of days later, my daughter came down with bites on her arms," an emotional Drabicki explained.
As the infestation grew out of control, Drabicki and her two daughters were forced to move in with her parents, transporting sanitized belongings in garbage bags.
In the end, Drabicki said she spent $4,500 fumigating their house and treated more than 1,000 pounds of infested clothing, but the cost went beyond money.
"My daughters couldn’t have friends over. We had to cancel a few birthday parties," explained Drabicki, who said her daughters still have nightmares about the ordeal.
Now the Drabickis are demanding that the Waldorf pay up, claiming that the hotel never followed through on offers to reimburse the traumatized tourists.
An e-mail distributed by the Drabicki’s lawyer confirmed that the hotel offered to pay for the damages, but Drabicki said they never came through.
The Waldorf’s parent company, Hilton Worldwide, denied that they were responsible for the family’s bedbug problem in a statement released Thursday.
"While we typically do not comment on pending litigation, we will share that the hotel took the guestroom in question out of service and had it inspected by an outside specialist. The official inspection reports stated there was no evidence or indication of bed bugs."
Two other families have claimed that they acquired bedbugs while staying at the Waldorf this month.
