“You come home and you are totally shocked this happened.”
Pilot Robert Favuzza had a run in with the rabbits in the employee parking lot after four days of flying.
“I saw a couple bunnies sitting near the front tire.”
He didn’t think much of it until his car wouldn’t reverse out of its spot.
“Lights warning horn and it doesn’t let me do anything.”
He took it to a mechanic who told him rabbits chewed the wiring harness for his transmission.
“This is the fuse panel and they will actually build a nest in here.”
Matt Hernandez at Tilden Car Care says he’s fixed rabbit damage from DIA on his customer’s cars and on his personal car.
He says soy based wiring, often found in German cars, is attractive to rodents.
“It’s like a nice big juicy steak for a field mouse or a rabbit.”
“That’s our highest problem, the rabbit damage done to the vehicles.”
Missy Schwab at USA Parking, says they’ve paid out more than a dozen claims for rabbit damage.
“We had one car messed up the entire electrical system, it wasn’t even drivable.”
So this off-site facility is taking aim at the rabbits, literally.
They built a $52,000 underground fence, installed raptor poles to attract predators and if that doesn’t work.
They poison, or shoot the rabbits.
“We wanted to eliminate the problem any way we could just so our customers feel their car is safe while it is here.”
DIA a says it partners with the USDA to disturb burrows and trap and remove rabbits from its parking lots.
They say formal complaints are rare.
But they won’t pay for any damage, it says it right there on the parking ticket.
“My employee hang tag says not liable for theft or vandals, but legally I don’t think rabbits count as vandals.”
For months Robert tried to get the city to pay his $428 repair bill, but it refused claiming “governmental immunity.”
Now Robert has a new method for protecting his car.
“I toss a rubber snake every time I park, it cost me two bucks.”
And so far it’s working.
This article originally appeared on Fox2Now.
