Rat in subway car jumps on sleeping man

NEW YORK (WABC) -- You may expect to find some rats inside of some New York City subway stations, but not on the actual train.

"I would have been screaming, crying, it wouldn't have been a pretty picture on that train," said Nesha Collins, a commuter.

A rat took over nearly every inch of a downtown #4 train, leaping on everything and everyone in its path.

"That poor unfortunate guy, he just got a face full of rat," said Jeffrey Forde, the man who captured the video of the incident.

Forde was riding on that same train Tuesday around 2 a.m. and spotted the rowdy rat, so he pulled out his pocket camera.

"Some people catch it and tell the story later, then other people like me would catch it and actually show people later," Forde said.

After all, who would believe a rat would be running loose inside a subway car, Nesha Collins thought the whole thing was made up until she saw the video for herself.

"No, that's not funny, that was nasty," Collins said.

Jeffrey said at first he was napping, heard a scream, saw the rat and took a picture of him resting comfortably on the sleeping man's lap.

"I said, 'wait a minute, if he does that again I have to get it on video'," Forde said.

The rat held up his end of the deal.

"The rat was really scared, trying to find somewhere to hide, the rat was more scared then everyone else was, a couple of people got off the train some people stayed on, some people went to other cars," Forde said.

As for the man who got up close and personal with the rat, he just shrugged the whole thing off.

"He just kind of shoulder shrugged it off, the rat jumped off, he went back to sleep like it was so routine to him, he went back to sleep," Forde said.

"We pay to much money to have rats on the train like that, what if he bit the man, he went on his neck," Collins said.

Jeffrey says he doesn't know how the rat got here or where it was going, the last time Jeffrey saw him was when he got off the train as the rat was still running around.

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new york city, subway, rats, animals, new york news, kemberly richardson

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