HOUSTON – Health officials in the city of Baytown are checking into a report of a movie-goer being bitten by a bed bug during a Saturday afternoon movie.
Health Department officials said the report came from a patron of the Baytown Premier Cinema 11 at San Jacinto Mall.
"Little weird to know now," said McKinley Gray, who frequents the theater. "I don't think anyone would have to worry about that at a movie theater."
Baytown officials said they are still investigating the matter. Theater director Michael McIntyre sent KPRC a written statement in response to questions about the incident.
"On Saturday afternoon, 9/10/16, we were made aware of a possible problem in one of our auditoriums involving an insect bite. As soon as we could safely do so without causing alarm, we shut down the auditorium when that movie had ended so we could investigate the issue and it remained closed until Thursday, 9/15/16.
"Our local pest control company inspected the theater on Monday and did find a problem with one of the seats in that auditorium. Even though the problem was isolated to the one seat in the back row of the auditorium, we had the back two rows treated just to make sure that the issue was remedied. We then had all of the seats in the auditorium professionally cleaned on Wednesday before reopening the auditorium to the public on Thursday. Our pest control company will be reinspecting the theater periodically to ensure that the issue does not occur again. It is a very small issue compared to the mosquito problems, etc. that one can find in Houston, and not exactly newsworthy. We treated the problem professionally like we would do with anything else. As of now, the building has been inspected, any issues have been resolved, and the theater is free from any pests."