A delivery man has captured a horrifying video of rats running free in a kitchen at Washington DC Popeye’s restaurant.
The DC restaurant was shut down by health officials last week after they saw the viral footage of the rats running across the floor and up the walls of the fast-food outfit’s kitchen.
The clip was posted by TikTok user @blaqazzrick101, who delivers food for the restaurant. The clip starts with the man standing outside Popeyes with the lights off inside. He gives a short narrative as he prepares to take the viewers inside.
“It’s this joint right here, that’s wild sh#t,” he tells the camera. Once inside, he turns on the light, and the horror house comes alive. Several rats whiz across the floor and run up the wall into the ceiling tiles.
“Do you still love that chicken from Popeyes?” asks the man.
@blaqazzrick01 #popeyeschicken #mickeymouse #ratsfarm #runandhide ♬ original sound - blaqazzrick01
The video, posted on October 11, has gone viral and racked up more than one million views as well as 200 000 likes and over 11 000 comments.
According to Popeyes, the restaurant will remain shuttered for good. A representative for the company told Eat This it had terminated the franchisee agreement with the owner of the infested location.
"This Franchisee only operates this one location, and it is being closed indefinitely. This single restaurant does not reflect our strong food safety and cleanliness standards across Popeyes,” reported the news site.
Reports also reveal that DC Health inspected this Popeyes location three times this year. On April 21, the company was hit by four violations, including one for an exterior door that was “not rodent safe” and for dead insects in the ceiling tiles. Management had fourteen days to rectify the problems, and an inspection report on June 10 noted that no violations had been found.