Dana Hedgpeth of The Washington Post reports the video depicts a rat crawling over cookies, pastries and pies at a Maryland bakery.
The incident unfolded Friday at Buttercup Bakery at Lexington Market in Baltimore. The bakery was shut down by city health officials, and so was another bakery nearby — Berger’s Bakery, which was closed for a fly infestation after an inspection, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The video has been viewed on Facebook more than 800,000 times. At one point in the video, the rat crawls onto cakes and then gets into a pile of cookies. Customers can be heard shouting. Someone yells, “Just grab him by the neck!”
Some customers of the Lexington Market, an indoor market that has operated since 1782, told the Sun that the area has had a longtime rodent problem.
The Sun said the video was taken by Milton Mitchell, who stopped by Buttercup Bakery on Thursday to buy cookies for his wife. He said he heard a noise as he neared the bakery, and another person pointed to the rat in the display case of desserts and pastries. Mitchell, according to the Sun, took out his phone and recorded it.
He told the Sun, “I never thought it would get this big, but I’m glad it did,” adding that he wanted to “let the public know what kind of situation Lexington Market is in.”
According to WBAL, the Buttercup Bakery general manager said an employee may have left a door open, possibly letting the rat inside.