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Be on the lookout the next time you walk down Walnut Street, Anthropologie bag in hand: a friendly rodent takeover is being staged in Rittenhouse Square, reports (?) 6ABC. Big, burly rats disperse over the park after sundown (vampire rats?) to do rat stuff, i.e. get into the trash, scurry about, and freak people out.
Making the situation worse, the rats seem larger than your average rat ("They're not like mice, like, these are rats," says a local resident), and they've become accustomed to the company of people: "It's almost as if they're like cats," says another park-goer. "They're, like, so domesticated." More on this story as it develops.
Update: Rittenhouse Row Executive Director Corie Moskow gives her official comment: "Don't all cities have rats?"
· Rat invasion in Rittenhouse Square [6 ABC]
· Rittenhouse Row on Walnut Street 'Mall-ification': Stop the Panic! [Racked Philly]