A colony of rats was seen hiding under a homeless man’s blanket at a New York City subway station before scurrying away when several commuters approached, according to shocking footage published on social media.
The video, which was uploaded by TikTok user @six4bk78 and received over 7 million views, depicts a homeless man at the end of a subway station sleeping on the ground beneath a gray blanket with only his shoes showing.
At the start of the footage, some rats dart away from the blanket and toward the subway lines, to the fright of nearby straphangers.
“Yo,” says the man recording as he approaches the sleeping body. The man says, “Yo,” a bit louder each time, and eventually the homeless man moves beneath the cover. In a matter of seconds, more than a dozen rats start to run off as he tosses the cover aside. However, the man does not appear to be bothered by the rodents and remains still.
@six4bk718
It is unclear what the man’s health condition is or his identity. Which subway stop the event was filmed at also remains unknown. The stations with the highest rate of rat sightings are 3 Av-149 St, 103 St, and Parsons Blvd, according to the NYC Subway Rat Detector.
According to a New York Post analysis of city records, there were 41,748 complaints about rat sightings and other vermin-related issues filed through the city’s 311 hotline in 2023. This is 1.5% more than the 41,120 complaints filed the year before, 7.6% more than the 38,809 complaints filed in 2021, Bill de Blasio’s final year as mayor, and 32% more than the 31,644 complaints filed in 2019.
