FEDERAL HEIGHTS, Colo. -- The Christmas Grinch has arrived in the form of raw sewage for a family in Federal Heights.
A major backup spewed black sewage throughout the mobile home of Courtney Scott and Jimmy Walter. One of the few things not damaged by the sewage was their Christmas tree.
"It was disgusting. It was pure black and brown water just flowing up out of there, six to eight inches over the toilet seat itself, so it's not like it was just seeping, it was pressurized," said Walter. "This isn't like your toilet overflowed because the water was running. None of our water was running."
"There was a fountain of sewer water coming out of the toilet. It cleared the top of the bowl," said Scott.
The carpet has already been ripped out. Black residue remains in the bathtubs and the tiled floor. The kitchen sink is still backed up with black water. These visuals only provide half the details about the damage.
"The smell, is if you've ever been in a port-a-potty that hasn't been cleaned in months or you go to a campsite that they only clean once a season, that's as bad as it was," said Scott. "Since we've taken out the carpet, the smell has gotten a lot better."
The bedroom where their kids, Jimmy, 5, and Cheyenne, 3, slept was so flooded, the floorboards have already warped.
"It was so wet that my husband was moving our kids' bed out of here and he fell through the floor," said Scott. "It probably took two minutes to completely cover this whole bedroom. It was like a pool of water in here."
"There was an inch of sewage, of literal poop, black," said Walter.
The family has insurance, but fears the damage is greater than they're covered for. They also feel the mobile home community management is responsible for the damage.
"They were doing some work on another line somewhere in this park and all of a sudden it just started pouring up into here. The maintenance truck came down a couple trailers down and snaked the line and the flow stopped," said Scott. "Then, he came over and (asked) us if that helped and we're like, 'Well, the flow stopped,' and he's like, 'OK. There you go.'"
"We went to the office to find out what the next step was and they said, 'Not their problem,'" said Walter. "I tried to get the manager to physically come over here and see the damage and she just absolutely refused, and then called the police on me and told me that I was harassing them."
7NEWS tried to speak with on-site manager Lori Cress about the sewage maintenance that was taking place in the community on Tuesday. She wouldn't meet with us face-to-face and had the front desk receptionist provide a contact for the community's corporate office in Provo, Utah.
We contacted manager Nate Nelson at Kingsley Management Corp. in Utah. He told us there was someone in the community doing work on a sewer line in a completely different area. He said it didn't affect the specific line leading to Scott and Walter's home. He also said the reason their sewage backup stopped was because there was a maintenance person on site and quickly unclogged the line preventing more damage.
7NEWS asked the family if there was any chance the backup was something related to the home and not a community pipe.
"Absolutely not," said Walter.
"No way," said Scott.
Scott said to pay for a hotel the last couple of nights they had to stop payment on their rent check. Scott and Walter own the trailer, but rent the lot it's on. The management company left a note on their door requesting payment within five days or risk having to move out altogether.
"(I) have nowhere for my babies to live. Christmas is ruined, and they just don't care. No one cares," said Walter.
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