Imagine showing up at your place of business and finding a crowd of onlookers and TV cameras in front of your place, only to find that the local news is doing a story on rats in your restaurant? A KFC in the West Village was going through that very same ordeal this morning, as all of the local news teams converged onto its site after receiving reports of rat sightings in the windows of its restaurant.
As you will see in the video, these rats are HUGE, and bouncing around the restaurant as if they were a play pen. Disgusting indeed. The owner of the particular franchise was of course, unavailable for comment. Here's the full story:
(CBS) NEW YORK
They are big. A pound or a pound and a half. Rats! Plump, healthy-looking and oh-so-agile.
CBS 2 cameras caught dozens of them early Friday morning through the window of this closed KFC-Taco Bell in the West Village.
Our cameras were rolling as rats invaded the popular eatery. Watch the amazing video as rats can be seen running, playing and eating leftovers off the floor of the restaurant at Sixth Avenue and West 4th Street.
These brazen rodents were seen scurrying across the floor right where diners would be sitting. They were foraging for food under the garbage cans and in the remains of dinner left on the floor.
Some frisky fellows even jumped up on the food trays, leaping from table to table like they were on an obstacle course and trying, but having trouble, climbing back down the chairs.
One was even perched on the ATM right by the front door:
"I've seen a lot of disgusting rats in the KFC. I love to eat at KFC but this is disgusting," said Tameeka St. Jean.
This rat infestation is not a new problem for this KFC.
According to the city's Health Department Web site, just last December, this KFC was cited for evidence of "live rats present in the facility's food and non food areas."
The franchise was also cited rats on at least three previous occasions by the Department of Health since 2004.
But the Web site said the rat problems had been addressed. This was clearly not the case from what CBS 2 cameras caught Friday morning.
According to people at the scene, the popular restaurant was open until 11 p.m. Thursday night. Others told CBS 2 that the problem has been going on for weeks.
Neighbor Susan Quimbyn said, "It's disgusting, and I am so glad you all are here to do something about it. Obviously things fall through the cracks. I'd like to interview the employees to see if they are aware of the situation."
And so would we. But so far, no employees have shown up for work, and no owner or manager has responded to our phone calls and e-mails.
Only a man claiming to be a former employee spoke with CBS 2. He said he quit after one month because of what he called "filthy conditions."
"I quit because it was nasty. They don't use gloves to make the food. They use the same grease day after day after day. At night, the manager told me to put the chairs up. We don't sweep; we don't mop. So that's what the rats are eating off, the stuff that's left on the floors," said Marcus Bonner, who claimed to be a former employee.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
nuff said
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