1/16/2012 Michigan Cheerleaders Not Cheering For Bedbugs

A cheerleading squad that checked into the Quality Inn in Walker said they found numerous bed bugs and evidence of bed bugs in more than one room.

Friday, they drove six hours to the Grand Rapids area for an early Saturday competition.

“I was getting my hair done when we saw a bug crawl across the pillow right next to one of the girls that was sleeping,” nine-year-old Carrigan Craven said. “[There were] eggs, a nest and dead bugs all over it and a bunch of live bugs all over it. It was gross.”

“So we started thinking about, when there’s bed bugs there’s normally more than one,” Craven’s mother, Angela said. “So we tore the whole room apart and found about five live bugs, numerous dead bugs and we found a little nest that looked just like the internet pictures. It was really disgusting, they were crawling all over the place.”

When they contacted the hotel staff, Angela Cramer told 24 Hour News 8, they were offered a $5 discount. That wasn’t good enough. The parents took pictures and insisted on a refund.

After a few hours of arguing and threatening to call police, they were promised their money back, according to Craven.

“I want hotels to recognize they’re there for customer service,” she said. “If somebody comes to you and says ‘I’m not happy with this, I just want to leave’, you shouldn’t try and fight us or argue about it.”

A Quality Inn staff member told 24 Hour News 8, they checked out the rooms but didn’t find any bugs. She also said an exterminator came into the rooms just in case.

Word spread fast.

By the time a group of Junior Varsity Cheerleaders drove down from Harrison Saturday afternoon, they had heard about the pest problem.

“I was kind of grossed out,” Megan McCarrick said. “I didn’t even know bed bugs were real.”

The group checked their matresses & box springs and requested to be on the second floor (bugs were allegedly found on the first floor).

The hotel staff was so insistent it didn’t have bed bugs, they let a 24 Hour News 8 crew into a first floor room.

After searching the matress they allowed the crew to see, they didn’t find evidence of any bed bugs.

But for Craven and her teammates, the experience and the pictures they took are proof enough.

“I’m just glad we found them before we went to bed,” Angela Craven said. “I don’t know what we would’ve done if we would’ve woke up and our girls had bites all over them.”

According to the Kent County Health Department, if anyone finds bed bugs in a hotel, they should call a county health department right away.

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