Photo: Oh, Just An Opossum Riding The D Train

(Via NY Times)

A Bronx-bound D train was evacuated at West 4th Street early Friday morning after a suspicious passenger was discovered cowering under a seat. It was an opossum! Aw, isn't it adorable? Well, no not really; opossums are actually quite terrifying. So how did it get there? Nobody knows! The Times reports that the marsupial was spotted huddling by a heat vent after the train pulled away from Coney Island, and police cleared the train when it reached the Village. Cops, "armed with heavy-duty gloves and a canvas bag" tried to collar the animal, but after it snarled at the officers, they backed off (we don't blame them!) and arranged for animal control agents to meet the train in the Bronx.

What happened then remains a mystery. Animal Care & Control has not yet commented on what became of the opossum, so we for all we know it's still out there riding the rails. (A Twitter user called @SubwayPossum claims to be the opossum in question, but that account has not yet been verified.) So until this thing's tracked down, we're going to call for a moratorium on the rule against putting your feet up on the seat. It's one thing to see rats crawling across our faces or emerging from another straphanger's mouth-hole, but once the subway starts to turn into a freaking Scooby-Doo episode, we're hugging our knees.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on January 18, 2012 9:11 AM

Comments [rss]

Sagar

Journey To The End Of The Night
http://vimeo.com/25323576

Ian W. Hill

How did it get there? Nobody knows? Uh, does no one remember a couple of years ago (even reported in Gothamist: http://gothamist.com/2010/09/1... how possums were introduced to Brooklyn to try and bring down the rat population? Yeah, smart idea. Of course one was going to make it onto a train out here in South Brooklyn where the lines are outside and easy to get to. Like it's not bad enough having them stand on top of your garbage can and hiss at you when you take out the trash...

Derek Dudek

im just wating for the locusts

Freddi BuBu

Possum stew anyone....?

AuntySemantic

We may get to that if the economy doesn't rebound soon.

chuzzlewit

it's "the other orange meat"

AuntySemantic

Good thing New York is a great walking town.

Mr. Know-It-All

Just call him Charlie:
"Did he ever return,
No he never returned
And his fate is still unlearned.
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Gotham
He's the 'possum who never returned."

Pixelwhore

This would probably explain some of the unreal ,gigantic master splinter like rats found in the BRONX and BROOKLYN projects.

Dirk

Give him a break. He's just selling candy for his basketball team.

TheRealCannibal

I thought it was for a class trip to the poconos?!

TheOkayestGeneration

Yo c'mon its FO THE KIDS

TheRealCannibal

ALLS I GOT LEFF IS M&M PEANUT AND STARBURZ

"Tim Osman"

If the Opossum swiped a metrocard I see nothing wrong with this

FU Boy

Jeez, come on people.

My next-door neighbor was going to call the cops because a raccoon was rooting around the garbage bins next to the house. He turned to me and asked "Are they dangerous?" I almost laughed at him.

Yeah, look at 'em. Rooting in a garbage bin. As soon as he noticed us, the critter hoped over a chain link fence and scurried off.

So dangerous, the very definition of 'savage killer'. /sarcasm

robingee

Raccoons and possums will tear your shit up if cornered. Just don't corner 'em. They'd rather run than fight.

AGWAGW

Okay, so this makes possums, racoons, hawks, turkeys, coyotes, and deer all spotted in Manhattan over the past few years. I'd watch out. Only a matte of time before a mountain lion decides to join the party.

Mr Mel

"but after it snarled at the officers, they backed off"
Those Sissie Marys.
Click to enlarge.

Spirit of 76

That's no possum. That's your average New York-size rat!

chuzzlewit

i used to live in a place FULL of 'possums, and we'd pick em up by the tail for fun when they'd play dead and we were drunk - but if they're cornered and they don't play dead, they bare their fangs and hiss and they're really freakin scary looking.