05-02-2009, 02:10 PM
A Modesto woman had to move out of her apartment when something horrible happened to her neighbor. We call on Kurtis with this unusual case.
Her upstairs neighbor died and no one knew for days... until she experienced it firsthand.
"It's been a total nightmare," says Sylvia Pena, Modesto resident.
What happened to Sylvia was very real.
"I was sleeping on the couch... I was awakened by some drops that hit my face...
I thought I was drooling," explains Sylvia.
It wasn't drool or water dripping from her ceiling.
What happened to Sylvia inside her apartment could be a hollywood horror scene.
It's so bad, she won't return without a mask.
"This is where it dripped on me, from right here," says Sylvia.
The drippings? Bodily fluids from the upstairs apartment.
Her neighbor had died... his corpse sat there rotting, he was dead for days.
The autopsy report found the 34-year old likely overdosed"... His body was "moderately to severely decomposed."
And over time, the decomposition allowed bodily fluids to leak, onto his floor, through the ceiling, eventually onto Sylvia and her things.
"The smell is nothing like you've ever smelled before. It's not like a dead animal, it's not like rotten food or something.. it's just something beyond... You can't even describe it," says Sylvia.
A biohazard team removed furniture and deodorized the place.
But she says the smell of death lingered. It already had seeped into clothes, bedding and her mattress.
She turned to her rental insurance company to get her pungent- smelling property replaced.
Farmers put her up in a hotel for two weeks until she could move, but they refused to replace the contaminated contents.
"Because my policy doesn't cover something so bizarre as this," says Sylvia.
Farmers sent her this letter, reading:
"Unfortunately, the blood and bodily fluid damage to your contents is not one of the 17 named perils covered in your policy."
Perils like fire or lightning, windstorm, falling objects, even aircraft is covered but not bodily fluids.
"We buy insurance thinking for that reason that my property will be handled," says Sylvia.
She moved to another apartment but only has a few boxes.
She sends her friend into her old apartment, with gloves, a mask and goggles, to retrieve items from the repulsive residence.
I ask Farmers Insurance spokesperson Jerry Davis, "Have you ever heard of anything like this?"
Davies says he doesn't know of any insurance company that covers bodily fluids.
I ask him, "So there would've been no chance that she would've had coverage under any policy that exists out there, based on this unexpected circumstance?
"That's correct," says Davies.
And because it was so random, something his colleagues collectively have only heard about once in decades on the job, Farmers changed its mind.
"We are going to cover all of her contents," says Davies.
And here are the checks Farmers sent Sylvia, totaling more than 33-hundred dollars.
That may be behind her but now, she needs to work on getting past that sickening stench from a corpse leaking on her.
"It's been an awful awful, super super awful experience," says Sylvia.
Farmers Insurance is now considering a national change to its policy.... adding "bodily fluids from death" as one of the perils they cover.
But so far, no decision has been made.
Her upstairs neighbor died and no one knew for days... until she experienced it firsthand.
"It's been a total nightmare," says Sylvia Pena, Modesto resident.
What happened to Sylvia was very real.
"I was sleeping on the couch... I was awakened by some drops that hit my face...
I thought I was drooling," explains Sylvia.
It wasn't drool or water dripping from her ceiling.
What happened to Sylvia inside her apartment could be a hollywood horror scene.
It's so bad, she won't return without a mask.
"This is where it dripped on me, from right here," says Sylvia.
The drippings? Bodily fluids from the upstairs apartment.
Her neighbor had died... his corpse sat there rotting, he was dead for days.
The autopsy report found the 34-year old likely overdosed"... His body was "moderately to severely decomposed."
And over time, the decomposition allowed bodily fluids to leak, onto his floor, through the ceiling, eventually onto Sylvia and her things.
"The smell is nothing like you've ever smelled before. It's not like a dead animal, it's not like rotten food or something.. it's just something beyond... You can't even describe it," says Sylvia.
A biohazard team removed furniture and deodorized the place.
But she says the smell of death lingered. It already had seeped into clothes, bedding and her mattress.
She turned to her rental insurance company to get her pungent- smelling property replaced.
Farmers put her up in a hotel for two weeks until she could move, but they refused to replace the contaminated contents.
"Because my policy doesn't cover something so bizarre as this," says Sylvia.
Farmers sent her this letter, reading:
"Unfortunately, the blood and bodily fluid damage to your contents is not one of the 17 named perils covered in your policy."
Perils like fire or lightning, windstorm, falling objects, even aircraft is covered but not bodily fluids.
"We buy insurance thinking for that reason that my property will be handled," says Sylvia.
She moved to another apartment but only has a few boxes.
She sends her friend into her old apartment, with gloves, a mask and goggles, to retrieve items from the repulsive residence.
I ask Farmers Insurance spokesperson Jerry Davis, "Have you ever heard of anything like this?"
Davies says he doesn't know of any insurance company that covers bodily fluids.
I ask him, "So there would've been no chance that she would've had coverage under any policy that exists out there, based on this unexpected circumstance?
"That's correct," says Davies.
And because it was so random, something his colleagues collectively have only heard about once in decades on the job, Farmers changed its mind.
"We are going to cover all of her contents," says Davies.
And here are the checks Farmers sent Sylvia, totaling more than 33-hundred dollars.
That may be behind her but now, she needs to work on getting past that sickening stench from a corpse leaking on her.
"It's been an awful awful, super super awful experience," says Sylvia.
Farmers Insurance is now considering a national change to its policy.... adding "bodily fluids from death" as one of the perils they cover.
But so far, no decision has been made.