LAKEWOOD, CO – A vacant home near Smith reservoir, found in June to be infested with rats, is being treated by exterminators after the city got a court order to enter the home and inspect, city officials said.

Rats were filmed by television crews crawling in and out of holes in the side of the house and on the roof at 1619 S. Lee Street back in June. Since then, the city got a court order for the city's Community Action Team officers to inspect the inside of the home, and found a "significant and disturbing" rat infestation, said Stacie Oulton, the city's public information officer. The owner of the house, Paula Dieckman, agreed to work with the city to hire professional exterminators, Oulton said, but the extent of the problem was so large that the city is also paying for extra services including a regular pickup of dead rats around the house and in the neighborhood.

When contacted by Patch, Dieckman declined to comment for this article.

Neighbors have complained to police about the smell around the property for more than a year, police reports show. When officers would stop at the property, they were not allowed inside, but reported strong smells of feces and urine coming from the house. Officers were so concerned they asked the Jefferson County Adult Protective Services to look in on two women living there, one in her 80s and one disabled.

Both women have vacated the house now, Oulton said. "The house is uninhabitable, no one can live there right now and no one has been living there," she said.

Police reports show in June of 2017, the property owners were given a citation for "bags of trash on the patio" that neighbors said were attracting rats. Neighbors told police a few weeks later that the property owners moved the bags into the garage and had not gotten rid of them. Dieckman reportedly told police on June 26, 2017 that her basement had flooded and that the family had put the items on the porch to "dry them out." She denied that rats were coming from her property, but said they were coming from Smith Reservoir behind her home. She told police she had hired an exterminator and had baited for rats.

In October, 2017 reports show Lakewood police came to the home to do a welfare check on the two women living in the house. Officers reported a "pungent odor of urine and feces," that caused an officer to turn away from the doorway. The officers were refused entrance to the house, but looking through the open door, one officer reported seeing a dog and "several pieces of feces on the floor." Officers also reported "a strong odor of something decomposing or animal waste" and that it appeared animals had chewed holes through the siding. The two women appeared healthy, the officer reported, and were neatly dressed. The 84-year-old resident told the officer her home had flooded again in the basement a few days earlier and she had hired people to air out the room with fans. She said it had been more difficult to maintain her home after the death of her husband 17 years ago, reports said. Officers asked Jefferson Count Adult Protective Services to follow up. The home owners were issued a citation for odors and told they needed to clean and sanitize the residence.

Code enforcement officers followed up in December, 2017 with a request to inspect the inside of the house to confirm that it had been cleaned up. Dieckman said she wanted to meet with her attorney before allowing officers into the house. Code enforcement officers visited agin in January and February, when they noted a video camera appeared to have been set up by the front door. Again the officers reported "the strong, pungent smell of an unkept house (waste and/or animal feces)." The smell was "noticeable from the outside with the doors of the house closed," an officer reported on Feb. 12. The officers made another contact with JeffCo Adult Protective Services regarding the house on Feb. 20. A case worker at JeffCo APS said she would attempt to contact the residents of the house on Feb. 22. On Feb. 23, when officers arrived at the house, one reported seeing Paula Dieckman drive away without stopping. Dieckman called the police department later that day and said she was turning the matter over to an attorney. Officers noted they had no contact with any attorney or law firm regarding the case.