Lodi, CA (KTXL) — Two teenagers who are covered in bed bugs bites claim they got them while sitting in movie a theater in Lodi.
“When we woke up in the next morning, we looked at each other and saw that we had all these red bumps all over us,” one of the girls said.
The girls did not release their names to FOX40 and did not show their faces on camera, because they were embarrassed.
“We don’t want to get bullied. And we don’t want to talk about it all day either,” one of the girls said.
Family member Matthew Wendt told FOX40 the girls went to see a movie at the Lodi Stadium 12 Cinema Friday night. Saturday morning, they woke up with hundreds of bites on their arms and legs.
“You shouldn’t have to worry about bugs at your local theater,” one of the girls said.
Wendt said he reported the bites to the manager of Lodi Stadium 12 Saturday morning, but moviegoers continued to sit in the same theater.
“At around 2 o’clock when the movie got out, he called me and said they actually found bed bugs inside the theater,” Wendt said.
The two girls are not the only ones who claimed bed bugs bit them in the theater.
“It was a really bad rash on my arms and on my legs too. From where you’re sitting, from where my skin was touching the seat,” Stephanie Booth said.
Booth revealed faint bite marks on her arms. She said she brought her daughter to the theater a few weeks ago, and that they both had bed bug bites afterward.
“I wish they would have told us about it or put up a public notice, because she was taken out of school for itching, and I had to leave work already,” Booth said.
Lodi Stadium 12 did post a public notice on their doors Sunday. It read:
“IN CONSIDERATION FOR OUR PATRONS WE ARE CLOSED TODAY FOR A THOROUGH INSPECTION. WE ARE SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.”
Wendt said management decided to close the theater only after he posted about the alleged bed bug encounter on Facebook.
“It went kind of viral and when it got really big, that’s when they closed the whole theater down,” said Wendt.
FOX40 has reached out to the movie theater for a comment. They have not yet responded.
A Facebook post from Lodi Stadium 12 says the theater will be shut down until Monday for an inspection.
