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‘It’s like a horror movie’: Elderly Colorado couple trapped by ‘eerie and creepy’ tumbleweeds in property

Marlies Gross said, 'I hope I can see out the window again. When I look out it’s nothing but tumbleweeds climbing up the window. It's a disaster'

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO: Days after a windstorm swept through tons of tumbleweeds in Colorado, a family's property is still "submerged" in the bushes, and they can hardly see out the windows. The elderly couple who reside in Colorado Springs were startled to see tumbleweeds encircling their front door and back windows. Although the meters-high tangles of tumbleweeds enclosing the couple's yard, driveway, and, at one point, front entryway may seem like fitting decorations for the Halloween season, the truth is that living with the spiky plants is not only an eyesore but also a physical - and pricey - hardship. 

Marlies Gross, a member of the tumbleweed submerged house, spoke with ABC News on Wednesday, October 26, and stated, "It's a horrific situation. Like a horror movie." The elderly couple began to receive quotes for the cost of completely cleaning up the debris from their property; Gross estimated the cost would likely be in the range of $6,500. She stated, "I hope I can see out the window again. When I look out it’s nothing but tumbleweeds climbing up the window. It's a disaster." 

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"It's very eerie and very creepy," remarked Gross as she stood in front of her house surrounded by tumbleweeds. At one point, she and her husband were unable to access her car, the road, or even the front door without risking injury from the jagged, dry plant edges.

Gross pointed to the tumbleweeds that towered high above her head and said, "There's a mountain, and I mean a mountain, on the right side of the driveway." When she realized that neither she nor her husband would be capable of getting into the car to drive themselves to a hospital in an emergency, she confesses, "I kind of panicked."

Gross claimed that earlier this week, several neighbors were able to at least clear a path to their car and a road, which helped soothe some of her concerns. However, the trouble that came along with the tumbleweeds remained short-lived.

This last weekend, a tangle of tumbleweeds struck several other residents in the region. In El Paso County, about 23 miles east of Gross's home in Colorado Springs, a rancher by the name of Delbert Vahling was likewise startled on October 23, Sunday morning, by the frightening sight of creepy plants stacked as high as some of the trees on his property.

In an interview with KOAA, Vahling stated, "It was breezy all morning, and then it just started really blowing hard, and here they came across the pastures. My first thought was fire danger... And the whole front porch was covered and I was worried about a spark from anything starting a fire. Still a big concern."

The responsibility for removing the weeds from private properties reportedly lies with the owner, despite the fact that many people in the area are now suffering from the plant after it blew through from the windstorm. "The county does not remove tumbleweeds from private property. Property owners can dispose of tumbleweeds in local landfills," a representative for El Paso County told News5.