Enormous Rat Spotted On Video In Williamsburg, Brooklyn Apartment
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The infamous pizza rat became a meme and a Halloween costume after being spotted rather innocently in a subway station in September, but now, a Williamsburg, Brooklyn man has found a rat in a far more unwelcome place.
As CBS2's Tracee Carrasco reported, the subway-sized rodent was caught on a home security camera right in Zach Eustace's apartment. Amid exposed brick and hardwood, the rat was caught on security camera scurrying around and making itself right at home.
"I was scared. I just got the shivers; I was like, 'Oh my God.' I freaked out," Eustace said. "I downloaded the video. I messaged it to my family. I was like, 'Guys, this is what living in New York is like.'"
Eustace's roommate first spotted the rat in the middle of the night. The next morning, their landlord hired an exterminator, but the unwanted guest did not leave.
"It's crazy," Eustace said. "You see rats in the subway all the time. They're enormous; scary. To think one is running around my fridge and my sofa; could be my bed – it's like, wow, that's not cool."
Just last month, the city said it has already been a record year of rat complaints to its 311 hotline, and residents in the neighborhood said the rat problem is getting worse with all the construction and vacant lots.
"Every night I see them. I see them, they're by the dozens," said Carlos Rivera of Williamsburg. "They hibernate in the areas where they've got construction sites, and then they come out when they put the garbage out."
An exterminator came back to Eustace's apartment on Thursday, and put traps all over. But Eustace and his roommate have not felt comfortable sleeping there, knowing the rat is still on the run.
But they are not planning on moving.
"It's got some life in it yet," Eustace said. "I think they're not going to come back."
