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Photo: Oh, Just An Opossum Riding The D Train
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 18, 2012
Modified Jan 18, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 18, 2012
Modified Jan 18, 2012
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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.
Tagged
d train
MTA
opossum
possum
possums
subway
wildlife
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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