Chicago's rat hole has brought chaos to local neighborhood
A rat-shaped hole in a Chicago sidewalk has become a viral sensation, attracting thousands of visitors and briefly being filled in.
A rat-shaped hole in a Chicago sidewalk has become a viral sensation, attracting thousands of visitors to the neighborhood street it occupies. That has tormented the people who actually live there, according to a woman whose home is just feet away from the impression, and resulted in numerous calls to police.
“I told someone it felt like I was living on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, because people were out there drinking, yelling, playing music and taking pictures of drugs on the ground next to the rat hole for clout,” the woman said. She spoke on the condition of anonymity, in part because violent threats about destroying the hole have been made online (NBC News viewed screenshots of the threatening posts).
“I know they’re having fun, and I don’t want to be anyone’s party pooper, but also, get off my stoop,” she said. “This is my house. I’m just trying to have a quiet weekend at home, and this is a residential area.”
The rat-shaped hole, which is more of an impression in concrete — and has been speculated to actually be a squirrel-shaped hole — has been a local oddity for years. The viral frenzy around it kicked off on Jan. 6, after a post on X about it was viewed more than 5 million times, according to X’s metrics. Over two weeks later, the hype has only escalated. Chicago officials, the Chicago Bulls’ mascot and several news anchors have made appearances at the rat hole. A proposal, a wedding and a shrine have all appeared at it.
“This isn’t the first time people have posted pictures of it online. So I don’t know why it had to take off so crazy this time,” the neighbor said.
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