Man Falls Through Sidewalk Sinkhole And Into Rat-Filled Chasm

NYT– On Saturday just past noon, Leonard Shoulders strolled up to a bus stop in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx. A handful of people stood around, waiting for their rides or looking down at their phones — an unremarkable scene.

But then a hole suddenly opened up on the sidewalk and Mr. Shoulders, 33, plunged into it. Stunned bystanders who rushed to the edge of the chasm faced a ghastly sight: Mr. Shoulders had dropped 12 to 15 feet into an underground vault teeming with rats.

“Rats crawling on him, he can’t move,” his brother, Greg White, told CBS New York. “He didn’t want to yell because he was afraid there were going to be rats inside his mouth.”

For about 30-minutes, Mr. Shoulders remained in the vault as firefighters tried to pull him out of the hole. Videos of the scene show him eventually being wheeled away on a stretcher by emergency workers. He suffered injuries to his head and arm, Mr. White said.

Cindy White, Mr. Shoulders’s mother, told NBC New York: “He’s traumatized. He said he went straight down, and he was falling, falling, but the debris was falling and hitting him in the head.”

Imagine this – you’re standing there on a crisp fall day, minding your own business, maybe checking your phone for messages or chatting up a homeless dude on the sidewalk, when suddenly you’re plunging straight down into the Depths of Hell. As you float downward into the darkness you have zero idea how far you’re going to fall, so you brace for the impact. Suddenly you land, but it’s a shockingly soft landing. You survived! But then, that soft, thick furry blanket under you begins to move. You’ve fallen onto a mass of teeming New York City sewer rats. Good God almighty that had to be horrifying. And how about Cindy White? She says her son is “traumatized.” Man, is she insightful or what?

Anyway, next time time you’re having a bad day remember that it could be worse – at least you’re not Leonard Shoulders.

Note: This has lawsuit written all over it, so here’s my question – Would you fall 12 to 15 feet into an underground vault teeming with rats and lay there for 30-minutes unti you were rescued for a couple million bucks?