Rats invade NYC restaurant (KFC)

[celeb_2006]

Rats invade NYC restaurant - Yahoo! News





New Yorkers are used to seeing rats where they catch their trains — not where they buy their burritos.
About a dozen rats were having a grand party Friday in a locked KFC/Taco Bell restaurant, scampering around the floor, playing with each other and sniffing for food as they dashed around tables and children's high chairs.
Onlookers could not keep their eyes away from the jaw-dropping sight — a gang of urban vermin invading a restaurant that had been taking people's chicken and taco orders just a day earlier. Video of the rats was seen around the world, disseminated on TV stations and the Internet.
"All you can eat once the store is locked," one onlooker joked.
"They should handcuff them and throw the dirty rats in jail," cabbie Wilson Paul said as he pulled over to gawk.
Word spread after a TV crew discovered the rat infestation Friday morning and filmed it through a window of the Greenwich Village building.
Health inspectors arrived, and the parent company for KFC and Taco Bell, Yum Brands, Inc., was again forced into damage-control mode a few months after enduring an E. coli outbreak.
The restaurant was not open when the rats were spotted. The company said construction in the basement on Thursday appeared to have stirred up the rodents.
"This is completely unacceptable and is an absolute violation of our high standards," Yum Brands said in a statement.
Rats have long been a problem in densely populated New York City. They are frequently seen scampering through subway tunnels, rooting through trash, dashing across parks and burrowing into the walls of apartment buildings.
Greenwich Village tends to be a happy home for them because of its combination of older buildings and a tangle of subway lines converging just below street level.
Still, it is rare to see so many rats congregating in one place in such public view.
The city Department of Health had inspectors at the site on Friday for hours, and by midday had posted a sign that read "CLOSED."
"Today, this establishment had serious unsanitary conditions," said Carol Feracho, a senior health inspector. "There were issues with vermin throughout."
She said the infestation was "coming from the building," with "openings" that allowed the vermin to enter. She provided no other details.
There was no answer at the phone number displayed in neon on the store window below the words, "We Deliver." Health Department records list the franchise owner as ADF Fifth Operating Corp., agency spokeswoman Sara Markt said.
The owner could not be reached for comment, despite numerous efforts.

The franchise owner "is actively addressing this issue," Yum Brands' statement said, adding that the restaurant will remain closed until the problem is resolved.
Joel Cohen, who lives in the building next to the restaurant, had a graphic view of the situation.
"This place is a disaster," said Cohen, who works in real estate. "They throw their rubbish in the doorways. It's loaded up with food in bags that are not tied, and the rats have eaten through the bags."
Taco Bell sales have slumped since last year's E. coli scare, in which more than 70 East Coast customers became ill. Federal officials said lettuce was the most likely source, and the company has changed suppliers. Yum Brands stock closed Friday at $60.51, down 55 cents

[Voodoo Child]

That tiny pic even gives me the creeps. I can't handle rats.

[Sojiita]

That was just the next days food escaping from it's cages.

[twitchy]

Rat feces is one of the ingredients in the colonel's secret recipe!

[lisalucy69]

Those things are HUGE and GROSS!!!!!!

[mella]

I have rats but they are cute and have their own food . They're not running around in my kitchen

[Mr. Authority]

Here's a video of this infestation here:
wcbstv.com - Rats Run Wild Inside Greenwich Village KFC
I don't see what the surprise is, I thought every knew KFC served fried rats. That's why I NEVER eat at a KFC , especially if it's sharing space with it's devil diarrehea cousin Taco Bell. :ugh:

[AKAMissy]

Those rats look um, well-fed. Those things are frickin' huge.
This really is disgusting. Thankfully, I haven't eaten at a KFC or Taco Bell in years. And I sure as hell won't be eating there ever again.

[shedevilang]

we had a kfc here once and the health inspectors came for a surprise visit and shut the bitch down during lunch hour we never heard what they found though.

[xoxo]

wow am i glad as usual to be vegetarian haha..that looks unappetizing to say the least lol

[KrisNine]

Looking at the rats don't bother me so much as what it means to have that kind of infestation in a kitchen.

They did a piece on the local news here about how your vegetables get from the wholesaler to the restaurants and I wanted to puke. There were people pissing next to boxes of produce....bleech!! WTF is wrong with people???

[moomies]

I saw this on the news. Oh god, there were sooooooooooooooooo many of them! Eww

[Grimmlok]

While down in Curacao, i ate at a KFC.. i made the mistake of letting my eyes wander up to the ceiling, where I spied a HUGE dead cockroach laying on the transparent panel under the fluorescent lights, right overtop of me.

I wanted to die.

[Mr. Authority]

While down in Curacao, i ate at a KFC.. i made the mistake of letting my eyes wander up to the ceiling, where I spied a HUGE dead cockroach laying on the transparent panel under the fluorescent lights, right overtop of me.

I wanted to die.

Oh god that's disgusting.
There was a KFC right across the gym I work at where it did'nt get alot of business, it closed down just last month because it turned out that they had low water pressure and their toilet did'nt work right. Imagine a mixture of fried fat and shit water, no wonder it never got any business.

[Quazar]

Why oh why did I click on this link? I waited 2 days and I just couldn't help myself any longer.

The night that this was reported - guess what I had for dinner? I think I'm scarred for life.