New York - News video showing about a dozen rats running around a KFC-Taco Bell restaurant in Greenwich Village was widely disseminated Friday on TV stations and the Internet.
The footage, taken from the sidewalk through a window, showed the rats running around the floor, between counters and tables and on children's high chairs. The establishment was not open at the time.
News crews flocked to the scene, and onlookers gave a play-by-play as the rodents moved about. When one rat came close to the window, a person on the sidewalk said: "He's coming for his close-up."
There was no answer at the phone number displayed in neon on the store window below the words "We Deliver."
Yum Brands Inc., based in Louisville, Ky., owns the KFC and Taco Bell chains. A message for comment left by The Associated Press was not immediately returned on Friday.
It wasn't immediately clear if the restaurant in question was owned by the company or a franchisee.
Last week, it was reported that Taco Bell sales had slumped after a widely publicized E. coli scare, but that international sales helped Yum Brands in the company's fourth quarter.
The E. coli outbreak late last year caused more than 70 Taco Bell customers to become ill. Federal officials said in December that the most likely source of the illnesses was lettuce. Taco Bell took precautions by changing its suppliers of lettuce and cheese in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Rats have long been a problem in New York City, with such a dense population and such a large and readily available food supply for the rodents. They are frequently scampering through subway tunnels, rooting through trash, dashing across parks and burrowing into the walls of apartment buildings.
But it is rare to see so many rats congregating in one place in such public view.
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