Rat infestation temporarily shuts down Dollar Tree in Ozone Park, Queens
NEW YORK -- A Dollar Tree store in Queens is temporarily shut down because of a rat infestation.
The president of the Ozone Park Residents Block Association said residents shared pictures from inside the store on Crossbay Boulevard.
He said they found rat droppings and bags of food with holes that were still on shelves to buy, and employees weren't doing anything about it.
"What they did was try to cover it by putting bags and boxes in front of it. So when we actually moved the bags and boxes, they didn't even clean it. The rat droppings were exposed in back of it. So we literally had to pull everything apart to realize how bad it was," Sam Esposito said. "We're worried these kids who come in here every day, because this is the food they eat, are going to get sick or we're going to have some sort of outbreak from rat transmitted diseases."
The city's Health Department said it launched an investigation into the store.
The Dollar Tree released a statement, reading in part, "We conducted a detailed assessment of this store location, which was recently remodeled, and any issues were remediated. We take these allegations very seriously and out of an abundance of caution, have closed the store today for a thorough cleaning and inspection."