One fascinating aspect of cryptozoology that tends to get overlooked time and time again is that of out of place animals. People tend to be drawn to the more bizarre creatures, such as Bigfoot, Mothman, the Loch Ness monster, or el chupacabra, which is completely understandable. But I think it’s equally fascinating to have known, common animals – kangaroos, baby elephants, mountain lions, panthers – showing up in places they shouldn’t. I’ve done articles on out of place animals before, and even recently did a story about a monkey that was allegedly on the loose in Massachusetts. Perhaps the best-known out of place animal encounter took place right here in NYC in 1935 – the legend of alligators in the sewers. And now it seems we have very large snakes in our subway system.
The large, black snake was spotted on a subway platform in Brooklyn on the morning of August 9th, and was apparently filmed by a train operator. Twitter user @TripleG_RTO posted the video of the snake slithering along the platform, as a commuter waiting for the subway in the background seems either unaware or unbothered by the large reptile. In New York City, either is possible.
Being a #TrainOperator for @NYCTSubway I thought I have seen it all but this can’t be real @ClaytonGuse @progressiveact @danrivoli @danrivoli @dahvnyc @ScooterCasterNY @s_nessen @AvaPittmanTV @Ykaner89 pic.twitter.com/RB6zadM9BQ
— Gomez (@TripleG_RTO) August 9, 2020
The huge snake is reportedly an eastern rat snake, a non-venomous species that eats rats (ironically enough). The species can grow up to be 7 feet long, and judging by context cues in the video, this specimen is probably somewhere in the ballpark of 6 or 7 feet. As literally everyone knows, the NYC subways system is teeming with rats, so if a wild snake was loose in the city, the subways would be a great place for a large snake to find lots of potential meals. Ultimately, it’s probably someone’s pet that escaped, but it’s equally possibly that someone (possibly the commuter in the background) owns this snake and took it onto the subway platform for shock value. There’s a reason nobody is screaming or even seems phased by this in the video. That’s just how things are on the NYC subway system. I do wish I knew which station this was, but the train operator wasn’t sure where this was filmed (different articles state different things, so I’m not 100% sure if the train operator filmed this, or someone just submitted this video to the train operator to post). Either way, add snakes to the list of urban legends of creepy things that live in the New York City underworld.
