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Moviegoers report rodents at Florida AMC theater over the weekend via social media posts

Posted at 1:05 PM, Jul 24, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-24 23:26:14-04

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Reports of possible rodents in the AMC movie theater in CityPlace Saturday night are spreading on social media.

One Facebook user shared a photo identifying what appeared to be three rodents in the theater during a 9:50 p.m. showing of Girls Trip Saturday. That post has been shared more than 1,300 times as of noon Monday.

One of the people who shared that Facebook post told WPTV News Reporter Amy Lipman that she saw half of the people in the theater run out in fear. She said rodents had apparently run across people’s feet sitting in the front rows. She said she stayed for the rest of the movie because she was sitting higher up in the theater, but she saw “little critters,” or what appeared to look like mice, scurrying across the floor when she exited. She said she asked for a refund for the disturbance, but she has not received it yet.

AMC Theatres has not directly responded to requests from WPTV for comment, but the company did respond to a complaint on the AMC Theatres Facebook page saying, “I’m sorry to hear about this - please be assured my teams are investigating.”

The Palm Beach County Health Department said that the theater is under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation and our inquiry has been passed along to it.

The Department of Business and Professional Regulation does routine inspections. The most recent inspection for 545 Hibiscus Street, labeled as Muvico Parisian 20, was done in August 2016. That inspection revealed several violations, including “live, small flying insects in kitchen, food preparation area, or food storage area. Area surrounding ice machine.” However, none of the inspections from the last three years mentioned violations for rodents. The department has no recent complaints about this business.

Reporter Amy Lipman will have more on this story today at 5.