Friday, August 26th 2011, 1:49 PM
The giant rat may be gone, but the kids at the Marcy Houses are still terrified of the gangs of smaller rodents that scamper across the grounds.
The playgrounds at the Marcy Houses were all but deserted Friday after the Daily News published a photo of a ridiculously huge rodent speared on a pitchfork by a Housing Authority worker.
Resident Tracy Battle said workers may have gotten rid of the the biggest rat in their buildings, but there are plenty more where that came from.
"Every day you see them," said Battle, as she clutched the hand of her 7-year-old granddaughter Zahna. "The kids can't even play after five because that's when they come out."
Little Zahna pointed at the blue-painted jungle gym and said she saw a "big, black rat" there a few days ago.
"I'm afraid to play in the blue part," she said.
Residents say the rats are feasting on the garbage piling up outside Building 21, which is near at least one of the playgrounds.
The Housing Authority has not yet weighed in on the alleged rat problem - or the monster rat, identified by animal experts as a Gambian pouched rat.
City workers poking around at the complex Friday declined to speak with a reporter.
The Gambian rat - which appeared to be about 3 feet long - was likely an escaped pet that joined a pack of smaller Norway rats.
Housing Authority employee Jose Rivera, who killed it, insists it wasn't the only one.
He said that while he was filling a rat hole last week, three scurried out - but he was only able to nail one of them.
"I hit it one time and it was still moving," Rivera said. "I hit it another time and that's when it died. I'm not scared of rats, but I was scared of being bitten."
Naomi Colon, head of the Marcy Houses Tenant Association, said there had been numerous sightings of the outsized rat over the years.
"The residents have told me that they've seen it running around with other rats," she said.
csiemaszko@nydailynews.com
No comments:
Post a Comment