The rats are coming. And they’re getting smarter.
A subway car full of grown men and women was terrorized by a rodent who caught a ride on the A train Monday morning.
The straphangers let out horrified squeals as the furry black creature scurried through the car.
“Shut up!” one woman wailed in despair as an MTA employee came onto the intercom to remind passengers to “remain alert and have a safe day.”
The rat allegedly boarded the downtown A train at the Fulton street station during the morning commute. Jinais Ponnampadikkal Kader uploaded his harrowing experience to You Tube.
“I heard someone shouting ‘RAT on the train!'” Ponnampadikkal Kader told The News. “But by the time everyone we understood what was happening, the doors closed and the train entered the tunnel. We were stuck with him till the other end.”
It’s the kind of situation that brings out the best and worst in people.
Some remained seated, lifting their legs up and laughing nervously. Others jumped up onto their seats, sobbing or letting out blood-curdling screams. Some pulled out their cellphones. One man stood his ground defiantly, trying to deliver a death blow.
Nothing worked.
“My voice, I lost my voice,” lamented one particularly vocal woman.
Ponnampadikkal Kader said he wasn’t fazed by the rat. His feet stayed firmly planted on the ground throughout the entire ordeal. But he was surprised by everyone else’s reactions.
“Everyone was so scared, even the men were climbing on top of chairs,” the 28-year-old software developer from Harrison, N.J. said. “Usually the Monday morning ride is really boring, but this brightened it up.”
The video ends as Ponnampadikkal Kader bolts out of the train at the High Street station. He says half of the people who were in the car followed him out the door.
It’s unclear how long this rat’s reign of terror lasted.
And there’s many more where he came from.
New Yorkers have a one in 10 chance of seeing a rat while waiitng for a train, according to the Straphangers Campaign.
The animals reach sexual maturity after just 8 to 12 weeks of life, The New York Times reports. The rats can give birth to about seven litters every year, with up to 12 pups per litter.
The MTA has developed a number of programs to target the resilient rodents, NBC reports. The authority has recently tried to seal off its 347 “refuse rooms” and has implemented a federally funded sterilization project.
