Super-Sized Rats Infest the Marcy Houses Where Jay-Z Grew Up

Super-Sized Rats Infest the Marcy Houses Where Jay-Z Grew Up

Housing Authority worker Jose Rivera speared a 3-foot rat with a pitchfork at the Marcy Houses in Brooklyn, NY.

Rivera, 48, says while he was filling a rat hole last week, three of the super-sized rodents came running out – but he was only able to nail one of them.


“I hit it one time and it was still moving,” Rivera said. “I hit it another time and that’s when it died. I’m not scared of rats but I was scared of being bitten.”


Naomi Colon, head of the Marcy Houses Tenant Association, said there have been sightings of the outsize rat for at least six years.

Animal experts have identified the animal as a Gambian pouched rat, a fairly common pet rat that can grow to four pounds or more and lives seven or eight years. Dr. Paul Calle, director of zoological health at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said the rat killed at Marcy Houses was probably an escaped or discarded pet who joined the regular rat race. “They are a very social animal and live in big groups in the wild,” he said.


Marcy House residents say the run-of-the-mill rats in the housing project where rapper Jay-Z grew up are even scarier than the huge Gambian pouched ones. “Even the cats are afraid of the rats,” said resident Stephanie Davis, 44. “They get together and gang up on the cats.”

The New York City Housing Authority had no immediate comment.

Read more at newyorkdailynews.com

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