What you don’t want to hear in a dark movie theater

For Griffin resident Kathy Peaden it was one of those occasions where you are not sure you heard what you heard. And it all came as the movie at Fayetteville‘s Tinseltown Theater had ended and the credits began to roll.

The family was getting out of their seats in the still-darkened theater when Kathy’s 4-year-old son produced an unexpected surprise.

“He stretched his arm out toward me and said, ‘Mommy, look at my mouse,’” Kathy explained, noting that her son had been sitting with several of his cousins in the row behind her. “I heard him say it, but I wasn’t sure what I heard. I saw a dark object in is hand. The kids started screaming and I told him to put the mouse down.”

The 4-year-old also informed his mother that a mouse had run across his lap, though Peaden said she could not be sure if her son meant the same mouse he was holding. It was only a short time later that the adults spoke with the theater’s general manager about the mouse.

It has been about a year since Tinseltown Theaters had a problem with rodents. Those days are back, with a 4-year-old moviegoer recently producing a dead mouse from under his seat during a May 5 family outing.

That experience prompted a complaint call to Fayette County Health Department. A May 8 health inspection confirmed the rodent problem and included an inspection score of 82. Meanwhile, Cinemark is again working to correct the problem.

Tinseltown General Manager Jacob McCartney indicated at the site Monday that the Cinemark corporate office would have to respond to all inquiries. The company is currently engaged in a “quiet period” related to the company’s initial public stock offering and could not comment on any matter until later this month, a corporate representative of Plano, Texas-based Cinemark said Monday.

What had been an enjoyable afternoon for Fayetteville resident Penny Barber, her mother Sandy, sister-in-law Kathy and all the kids morphed into a completely different experience once the movie was over.

“We spoke with Mr. (Jacob) McCartney,” Barber said Monday. “He said he had been hired because they had not been able to get control of the situation. Mr. McCartney said they had found a new infestation (during the first week of May) and that a new exterminator had been hired.”

Responding to Barber’s complaint, Fayette County Environmental Health County Manager Rick Fehr inspected the theater May 8. He confirmed that Tinseltown management has acknowledged a problem with rodents.

Fehr said he found evidence of rodents in movie screen areas. Fehr also noted rodent holes along some interior walls.

Fehr said May 14 that seven mice had been caught and 42 traps had been set in areas behind the theater screens where the rodents had been living.

Fehr said Tinseltown is following his recommendation to have exterminators on-site twice each month rather than once per month or once per quarter. He said the frequency of those visits should make a difference in successfully handling the problem. Rodents must be denied access to the building, access to food and water and they must be trapped or otherwise eliminated, Fehr said.

A letter from the pest control division of Grand Prairie, Texas-based Ecolab said 42 additional traps had been placed behind the screens in all 17 theaters and that the seven mice referenced by Fehr had been caught. Indicating that servicing would occur twice monthly, Ecolab District Manager Joe Parks said the company made notes on structural issues where mice were entering the theaters

“It is very important that we get assistance here as quickly as possible to help prevent future sightings and quicker trapping behind screens. We will continue to work twice weekly until the problem is resolved,” Parks said.

Though Tinseltown received a score of 95 on an October 2006 inspection, the most recent inspection on May 8 came back with an 82. Fehr’s health inspection report noted a number of deficiencies, including comments about the dead mouse reported by Penny Barber.

In an addendum to the inspection report, Fehr said management has recently ended a contract with a pest control company and hired a new company to control and eliminate the rodent problem. In addition, management is to institute a daily plan to reduce food and water access by rodents, Fehr said.

Other deficiencies included in the report addressed such areas as several waste containers lacking required covers, an ice cream scoop touching an unsanitary surface and a fly in a food preparation area.

The next health inspection is expected in approximately six months.

For her part, Griffin resident Sandy Peaden said the outing at Tinseltown with her daughter, daughter-in-law and grandchildren went well until her grandson showed everyone what he had found.

“I saw the mouse in his hand. We were shocked beyond belief. We even bought food there and that makes me sick,” said Sandy Peaden. “But the manager was very nice. I think they are trying to clean it up.”

Sandy Peaden offered another opinion of the experience. It was the same conclusion reached by Penny and Kathy.

“Going to a movie is something we can all do together,” the grandmother said. “From now on we’ll go to the theater in Newnan or Griffin.”

Cinemark operates 396 theaters with 4,488 screens in 37 states and in Central and South America.