A popular restaurant in New York City has been forced to close after rodents the size of small cats have taken over. The Chipotle restaurant franchise located in Morningside Heights in Manhattan has been shut down since November 23 when rats chewed through its computer system wiring which is used to take customer orders.
According to earlier reports, four of its employees say they have been bitten by the aggressive rats who have also gone through the restaurant's stock of avocados stored in its backrooms.
Luis Gustavo Paulino Ruiz, an employee of the restaurant, claimed he was attacked by a rat when managers had called him in to clean up on Tuesday. Ruiz argued that the franchise should have paid for exterminator services to remedy the infestation before it got out of control.
Employees have also confessed that they have killed dozens of the pesky rats since the rodent invasion began in the summer. At first, the restaurant staff had gotten used to just stomping on the giant vermin or whacking them with brooms. They revealed that despite its first employee being bitten in October, the restaurant had remained open and ignored the dangers the infestation could pose to the staff.
The only time the restaurant decided to shut its doors was when a manager was reportedly bitten on the hand last month.
A statement from Chipotle said the rat infestation was not merely confined to their restaurant. They point out an existing major pest problem in the entire vicinity and dispute any accusations that they have put their employees at risk. the New York Post wrote.
The Department of Health had also said an in-person sweep would be conducted Tuesday by both a restaurant inspector and a pest control expert.
Photos taken inside the store showed a man handling a huge dead rat the size of a small cat using a Chipotle paper bag as a glove. Another showed an avocado that had been gnawed by a set of hungry teeth.
Employees were forced to move the avocado stocks into a cooler but some workers now refuse to set foot in the basement for fear of a rat assault as it seemed they had apparently grown fat from a constant supply of food.