NYC Taco Bell/KFC shut down due to rats

(New York - WABC, February 23, 2007) (WABC) -- It's not the kind of thing restaurant customers want to see.

The New York City Department of Health has indefinately shut down a fast food restaurant in Greenwich Village after rats were seen having their run of the place after closing.

Eyewitness News reporter NJ Burkett has the latest details.

It is the Taco Bell at 331 6th Avenue near the corner of West 4th Street. City health inspectors went inside around 10:30 this morning. They were here back in December, when they conducted an inspection and found some evidence of rat infestation. The restaurant, in that case, was allowed to remain open. Not this time.

People on the street couldn't believe what they were seeing. Rats running rampant through a Taco Bell restaurant in the heart of Greenwich Village. And it's not just one, or even two rats. Witnesses counted at least a dozen.

It was a horrifying sight for people who eat there, many who are joining a growing crowd of former customers.

"I like mexican food, so I come to Taco Bell sometimes," customer Shelly Vinson said. "But never again. That's disgusting."

Eyewitness News has learned the restaurant passed its latest inspection last December, as well as three previous inspections in March of 2006, November of 2005 and November of 2004. That, despite the presence or evidence of at times: