$20 million lawsuit: Resort let the bedbugs bite

Lawsuit: Resort let the bedbugs bite
Chicago woman seeks $20 million from Catskills resort

NEW YORK (AP) -- A Chicago booking agent and her husband sued a Catskills resort Tuesday for $20 million, saying her body and mind were scarred after she suffered some 500 bedbug bites while staying at the hotel last summer.

Leslie Fox, 54, said she and husband Stephen Cohen never felt the bedbugs bite while sleeping at the 700-room Nevele Hotel in Ellenville, New York.

She said she noticed the lesions when she got up after their third night there.

"I was horrified to see all of those bites all over my body," Fox said.

"I became very upset and alarmed," she added.

"I was miserable. My skin felt as if it was on fire and I wanted to tear it off."

As she discussed the allegations Tuesday, Fox sat in front of about a dozen photographs, including several pictures of her back, chest, arms and legs -- all covered with bloody bites and pustules.

Joe O'Connor, a lawyer for the resort, said he and his client had not seen the lawsuit so he could not comment. But he said the hotel has ongoing treatment and inspection by pest control companies that will certify the Nevele is bug-free.

O'Connor also said he had contacted the lawyer who filed the suit and was "trying to work things out."

Several other lawsuits have been filed in New York City and other U.S. cities because of alleged bedbug attacks in hotels.

Wow! That's $40,000 per bite. I think this might be worth it!