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Helmsley Housekeeper: 'Trouble' Ruined My Life

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Aug 30, 2007 6:05 pm US/Eastern

Helmsley Housekeeper: 'Trouble' Ruined My Life

Former Maid Often Bit By Rich Pooch, While Helmsley Cheered On

by Cindy Hsu
NEW YORK (CBS) ― Just when it seemed bizarre enough that Leona Helmsley's dog "Trouble" became the richest pooch in the city after the late hotelier left her best friend a $12 million trust fund in her will, Helmsley's housekeeper has come forward with even stranger news about the late "Queen of Mean" and her feisty pet.

Zamfira Sfara was hired by Helmsley three years ago. Immigrating to America from Romania, she's a single parent of two boys. A former optician and jeweler, she fell upon hard times and took the housekeeping job.

She had no idea that Helmsley's pampered Maltese would live up to her name, saying the dog practically ruined her life.

Her duties included feeding Trouble by hand.

"I would have to stick my two fingers in her food and let Trouble eat it," Sfara tells CBS 2.

To make matters worse, Sfara says the dog and Helmsley had the same nasty personality, and when Trouble would bite her nearly every other day, Helmsley would cheer her on.

"What Trouble was doing, it makes Mrs. Helmsley so happy. She was just saying, 'Good for you Trouble, she deserved that,'" she says.

Sfara only worked for Helmsley at the Park Lane for three months, but says they were 19 hour days. She recalls the Helmsley people told her not to come back after she went to see a doctor for her latest dog bite. The bites were apparently more serious despite the dog's size.

Sfara says Trouble bit her all over and claims the bites to her hand caused nerve damage and electric shocks of pain up her arm and down her back.

"it's like stabbing knives, and it's so much pain. It's unbearable," she says.

Sfara sued Helmsley afterward, but a judge dismissed the case. She says because of the pain, she's been unable to work and regrets ever taking the housekeeping job that she had no idea included caring for trouble.

"Why didn't they tell me? I probably would say, 'No, I don't want this.' Who wants to be tortured every single day, who?" she says.

Sfara adds she's not surprised Trouble ended up with $12 million and says she's sad for Helmsley's two grandchildren who received nothing. Now even with Helmsley gone, Sfara says her nightmare continues.

"I can't forgive her. I can't no matter how hard I try," she tearfully admits.

Howard Rubenstein, the spokesman for the Helmsley family, had no comment on Sfara's allegations.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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