The holiday season has arrived and with it comes the time-honored tradition of rooting through the garage for boxes of ornaments. While Santa may dwell in chimneys, other mysterious - and less cuddly - creatures of the night roam in dark enclaves of our abodes where things are stored.
This journey into the vaulted safe doesn't yield a mushy Christmas tale. Quite the opposite, in fact. While digging through boxes this week I was startled by a cockroach that scurried from underneath a pack of ornaments.
The very minor incident - I do believe the box was tossed across the garage, there may have been a squeal somewhere in there - got me thinking of my last major foray with the creepy crawlers.
I stumbled upon this story while dealing with my own roach problem while living in central Tucson, Ariz., in the summer of 2006. Turns out all of the Old Pueblo was experiencing an influx in cockroaches - thanks to a city decision to abandon its spray policy. By the time I started sticking my nose around, the city had already implemented a new program to eradicate the bugs.
This piece always sticks out in my head, because I was the first in town to have it. Very soon after other Tucson media outlets picked up the story. You could say I broke the story and that, for a journalist, is better than Christmas morning.
click the "headline" below for a link to the original column or read it in its entirety below
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