Family claims Rent-A-Center sent them a couch infested with bedbugs and mites

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A family has filed suit against a well-known rent-to-own store saying they got a lot more than they paid for. The family claims that along with their furniture they also got a nasty bug problem.

That family says its problem with Rent-A-Center is that the store sent them sofas infested with bedbugs and mites.

Leah Angle and her boyfriend say their bodies are covered with marks left from pesky little bugs.

"My skin looks like it's all tore up now. These sores will never go away," said Hardy Moore.

Those sores, the couple claims, are from bedbugs and mites hidden in a sofa they had delivered from the Rent-A-Center on Scott Street.

"He pulled up the couch pillows, and instantly seen mites -- like bugs and little white mites," said Leah Angle.

The couple say they and their four-year-old son moved into an apartment last summer that had been renovated and cleaned. A lawsuit they just filed claims the sofa Rent-A-Center sent them two weeks later was infested with bugs that left them with blisters and scabies.

Angle says she called the furniture store.

"They said that they were going to come over and spray the couch down, if it was the couch that the bugs should eventually come off of the couch," she said.

But the family says exterminating didn't help.

We reached out to a spokesman from Rent-a-Center. He told us the company does not comment on pending legal matters. But he did say the stores are inspected by a licensed exterminator each month.

A statement Rent-A-Center released to Eyewitness News goes on to say, "We use sanitization agents in accordance with applicable state laws... We visually inspect all merchandise that comes in and out of our stores."

Now Angle and her boyfriend say they've hired an attorney to help them get some action.

"We want to send Rent-A-Center a message that these claims should be taken seriously. Here this family went for months without adequate response from Rent-A-Center," said attorney Rodney Glover.

Angle and her boyfriend claim they don't want an issue like this to happen to another consumer.

The couple claims Rent-A-Center never picked up the sofa, and they had to throw out a lot of their personal belongings.

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local, demond fernandez

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