Plunging into a pit of rats is no longer an irrational fear for this Bronx man.
What We Know:
- In late October, 33-year-old Leonard Shoulders was waiting to catch a bus at East 183rd Street near Third Avenue in Bronx, New York. Suddenly, the ground beneath him fell through plummeting him 12 feet below a side-walk sinkhole and into a dark vault filled with rats.
- According to the Gothamist, Shoulders has since filed a lawsuit, claiming gross negligence of property maintenance, against the city and the owner of a nearby building. His attorney, Nicholas Bagley, told the Gothamist, “These rats were crawling all over him and he was fearful of screaming out because he didn’t want them to go in his mouth or further agitate them.”
- His attorney also stated that the total amount of money Shoulders is seeking to gain in the lawsuit will be determined by the extent of his permanent injuries and psychological trauma. Since the incident occurred, Shoulders’s attorney states that he fractured his spine and was paralyzed in the fall. After undergoing spinal surgery, and currently living in a rehabilitation facility, it is unclear if he will ever regain full function of his body.
- The whole thing was caught on a security camera in a nearby building. The video, obtained by NBC News, shows pedestrians leaning over the gaping hole in the sidewalk in an attempt to address Shoulders’s condition. After spending thirty minutes in the rat-infested pit, Shoulders was finally pulled out by the New York City Fire Department.
This story is truly a New Yorker’s worst nightmare!
