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AURORA, Colo – A pregnant mother of three contacted Denver7 after she was without a working toilet at her apartment complex for three days.
Dominique Roberts, who has been pregnant for four months, has resorted to using the bathroom in cups and a plastic bag since her toilet is not working.
She said her landlord wouldn't fix it after he was told about the problem several times, and even refused Roberts’ offer to pay for a plumber to fix the toilet.
“I’m not working because I’m having a lot of issues with my pregnancy,” Roberts said. “I need to be on bed rest, but I’m just under a lot of stress.”
Roberts was told by the landlord that while they checked out the problem, she could use the bathroom at the gas station down the street – however it’s too long of a walk for Roberts, who is supposed to be on bed rest.
Instead, she is using other means to go to the bathroom.
“Every time I go pee, I take my little red cup in the kitchen on the counter, and I go pee in it,” Roberts said. “When it comes to pooping, I have these little bags I go poop in there. I then tak them outside to throw them away.”
Roberts has her 4-year-old son in pull-ups as well to allow him to use the bathroom.
Roberts said that the landlord sent someone out to try and fix the toilet, but that didn’t work.
“They said it’s my problem,” Roberts said. “They feel that one of my kids put something in the toilet that’s causing it not to go down.”
Even after Roberts offered to pay for a plumber, the landlord texted her "no."
Because Roberts felt cornered, she contacted Denver7's Tomas Hoppough, who then called the landlord.
When Hoppough called the landlord, the landlord asked “What do you think should be done?”
Hoppough responded it should be fixed.
The landlord proceeded to tell Hoppough that they were not ignoring the problem, and sent someone out three times to fix the toilet.
According to the landlord, the toilet was fixed because there was a piece of broken toilet found in the toilet.
However, Hoppough told the landlord it was not fixed.
In the conversation between Hoppough and the landlord, the topic of who was responsible for fixing the problem came up.
“I don’t know this for sure, but I believe that it’s possible that there is something in (the pipe) something blocking it,” the landlord told Hoppough over the phone. “It could be the child put a toy in there. I know kids do that sometimes.”
“If we don’t know what the problem is, shouldn’t we come out and try and figure out what the problem is?” Hoppough asked.
“At my apartment if I try to fix that myself, or hired somebody myself and that made it worse I would be held liable for it.”
The landlord told Hoppough that she was going to call Roberts again.
A few hours later Roberts called Hoppough.
“I finally took her phone call and she basically wanted to reconcile, and work things out,” Roberts said.
“She ended up calling a plumber to come. You calling her made her jump up and do what she needs to do.”
According to Roberts, the toilet was fixed three hours after Denver7 called the landlord.
