A wiggling mass of live crabs was spotted riding an N train through three boroughs last weekend, according to reports.
The crowd of crustaceans was caught on camera by 24-year-old Brian Slepian, who came across the crabs around 10:45 p.m. at the 45th Street subway station in Sunset Park.
The crabs then took the train through Manhattan to Queens, where they were spotted around midnight at Queensboro Plaza by 24-year-old Shawn Petcaugh.
Petcaugh said that he was headed home from a Mets game when the subway car rolled up emanating a “horrid smell,” according to Gothamist, which first reported the arthropodal sighting.
Petcaugh estimated that there were around 50 crabs in the car. “How? Why?” he said.
The MTA had no comment on the story.
Local
The fate of the crabs, as well as how they ended up in the subway in the first place, is unknown, but one man was apparently trying to save the critters by throwing water on them.
“He came on the train after I did and, in a psychotic attempt to help the crabs, threw a liter of water on to the floor,” Slepian said.
Slepian told Gothamist the man throwing water said it may have been a prank on him because his zodiac sign is Cancer.
One thing’s for certain — if the crabs took the N train to the end of the line in Astoria, they’d better skedaddle fast. The Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard station is surrounded by several Greek seafood and Japanese sushi restaurants.
