'Skunked' Family Finally Getting Relief
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4)- A Colorado family is finally getting some relief after a colony of skunks infiltrated their home.
So far, 15 skunks have been removed from the Greene family's home. A colony of skunks took up residence under their home in Steamboat Springs last fall and forced the family out.
The family was worried their insurance company might not help pay the cost to remove the skunks, which could add up to $100,000. The Greene family said State Farm Insurance will cover the expenses so they can move back home.
Mae Greene says she'll never forget Nov 29 at 4 a.m.
"We were sleeping and we woke up coughing and thinking it was a gas leak. It was awful," Mae said.
A colony of skunks had found their way underneath the 100-year-old house's flooring. Since it's so old, the house has no foundation and was a perfect safe harbor for a labyrinth of tunnels.
The Greenes and their two children moved out while trappers came in. For weeks they caught a skunk daily -- a total of 13.
"We kept hoping we'd be home for Christmas," Mae said. "The smell would just not go away. Everyone kept saying, 'Oh, it will go away, it will dissipate.' And some days you'd come in and it was even stronger."
A highly-trained exterminator from Denver came in early this year and decided they needed to rip up the floors to find out where the smell was still coming from.
"They just cut it and ripped it all out," Harris Greene said.
"We would have never known how extensive the tunneling was," Mae said. "Once we pulled them up to see that tunnel system and to see the poo everywhere, and the smell, and your eyes were watering."
When the floors came up, two more dead skunks were found under the house.
"No one has ever heard of anything like this, and so it's just been challenging for that reason," Mae said.
