MARION, Ind. (WTHR) – It was supposed to be a family outing to see a movie classic.
“We went to ‘The Lion King.’ We were in Theatre 9,” said mom Sheila Ruley of her trip to the AMC Classic Theatre in Marion last week with her kids.
The visit, said Ruley, was memorable for all the wrong reasons.
“Within about 10 minutes, I felt a bite,” Ruley recalled.
When Ruley used her phone’s flashlight, she saw something had bitten her.
“I had a bunch of bites all over my arms,” Ruley explained, adding that with each second that passed, the swelling on those bites just got worse.
When she lifted up the armrest of her seat, she said she saw bedbugs there.
“There was four of them just crawling right on the armrest,” said Ruley.
The mom said she knows what they look like, because a guest in her home three years ago brought them to her house.
“It’s a nightmare. We had to get all new furniture, all new mattresses. It was a nightmare, so I don’t want to deal with it again,” Ruley said.
When Ruley said she told the manager about the bedbugs, she said they suggested she had a mosquito bite instead.
“I said I know what bedbugs are,” Ruley recalled. “She goes, ‘I forgot to tell you someone had ticks in here the other day, so it might be ticks.'”
Ruley wasn’t buying it.
“I’m like, ‘Ticks don’t bite. They bite and then crawl under your skin’,” Ruley said she told the manager.
This isn’t the first time a visitor to the Marion theater has complained that bedbugs bit them. Last November, Eyewitness News spoke with a woman who told us she was bitten all over her legs and arms.
The Grant County Health Department came in and found there was a problem, finding evidence of bedbugs and their eggs.
The theater manager told Eyewitness News they couldn’t comment on the situation this time, that only a corporate spokesperson could. We tried to get through to someone at AMC’s corporate offices and couldn’t.
Ruley said she tried to call, too, a few times, and said she was put on hold.
“Been on there 45 minutes both times and the other time I emailed and got a message and have not gotten anything back,” said Ruley.
That’s why this mom did a Facebook post to warn others about what she says happened to her.
“It more disappointed me because I’m there to enjoy family time. I shouldn’t have to get up and take care of a situation,” said Ruley.
She said the manager gave her six free passes to make up for it, but until Ruley has some answers about what she believes is anther bedbug issue, she’ll pass on those passes.