Angels: A rat infestation has been cleaned up in the stadium’s concession stand
Theories abound, but one is a good one: Mickey Mouse was starving and wandered from Disneyland to nearby Angel Stadium where he cleverly ran into a concession stand torn apart by a nosebleed and a nasty right field.
That concession stand — high up in View Level Section 42 — was the only one of the 160 at Angel Stadium that will be flagged by Orange County health inspectors Wednesday for a “rat infestation.”
Not a bad hit rate, but with apologies to Mickey, no exceptions are allowed when it comes to rat infestations and food.
The Angels have been on the road all week, but a team spokesman said Tuesday that the stand has been cleaned and will be inspected again before Friday’s homestand against the New York Mets.
“After receiving guidance from the health department, we worked quickly with our licensing partners to resolve the issues at one location and expect to pass the inspection and reopen in time for the next location,” Angels said in a statement.
The Orange County Register publishes a weekly list of restaurants and other food vendors ordered to close and allowed to reopen by county health inspectors. Eleven facilities were closed from April 16 to 23, nine for rat or cockroach infestation, one for inadequate hot water and one for unauthorized renovations. Angel Stadium concessions were listed.
The spokesperson of the team said that the rats were not found in any of the places where food is prepared, that it happened under the storage area near the water heater.
The county health services inspection report said that in order for the stand to reopen, the rodent activity must be eliminated and the equipment area, food containers, shelves and floors must be cleaned and sanitized. Also, cracks larger than a quarter-inch must be sealed “to prevent vermin from harboring.”
The guilty stand had just passed the test in June. Angel Stadium’s rat problems have stopped since a 2007 report by The Times that the stadium had been cited 118 times for pest violations in the previous two years. Major citations were issued in 33 cases where rats or other pests were found where food was stored, prepared or served.
The Angels blamed the presence of vermin on the open field’s construction and proximity to the Santa Ana River. They said that in 2005 heavy rains brought rats into the stadium and contributed to the high number of figures.
The Angels went to war with the rats, announcing that cleaning crews would come to work an hour after each game instead of waiting until the next morning.
“Trash has been sitting in the seating area after games, and that problem will be eliminated starting tonight,” Angels spokesman Tim Mead said at the time.
By 2009, the team had solved the problem.
Until last week.
“The Angels take great pride in delivering a high-quality fan experience at Angel Stadium,” the team said in a statement Tuesday, “including maintaining the cleanliness of our nearly 160 concession stands.”
