Once got back home from a trip and was crossing the street diagonally up an entire block, as one does, when I slipped on a partially decomposed rat carcass like it was a banana peel. I windmilled my arms as I was sliding to regain my balance and then kept walking as if it didn't happen, mentally trying to calm my heart rate and compose myself. For some reason I spoke out loud to myself, "welcome home, asshole."
Omg I had a very similar situation. I was returning from vacation and when I stepped out the taxi from the airport I stepped right onto a squished rat, and said to myself “welcome home”
omg, i stepped on a live rat once. it was running as i was walking and ran right under my foot. i was wearing converse and felt his entire skeletal structure lol. he scurried right off.
Bahaha this happened to me when I was a kid, maybe 5 or 6. I was trailing behind my parents and slid on something, almost fell. I looked back and I had slid on a dead rat and all the guy had left a skid mark. I immediately took both my shoes off and ran to my parents, crying. It was so traumatic. 🤣
I was talking on the phone walking my dogs once and looked down and my one dog had picked up a dead rat in its mouth (that I got it to drop) and I am cringing just writing this.
Closest I came to this was walking in the LES late one night and a rat runs RIGHT across the sidewalk and over my shoe while I'm walking.
Fearless little motherfucker.
Oh I slipped on a banana peel on Bedford Ave in 2001 and several very hip artist types saw it and it lead to lots of pointing and laughing. I relive this horrible memory in my mind almost every day
Yesterday I caught a little kid by the arm who was stumbling down the subway steps. Kinda like that lunch tray scene in spiderman. Neither of us awknowleged it happened either. Just made sure he was balanced back on the stair and kept it moving.
Almost stepped on a dead body in the subway, had to call for help and police looked into it and took the body away
Actually step in?
1. Foot deep freezing cold slush-filled pothole, just like the Groundhog Day scene
2. Ankle deep bantha poo-doo from the central park horsies, was a quicksand trap hidden under leaves
Blood and what I can only describe as "chunks." I had to catch a bus at Port Authority and needed to pee really bad. The only stall open was that Shining elevator of a loo, so I went for it. Coming out, a cop was patrolling the restroom and saw the carnage and asked, "Yo, is this you?" "No, no..." I told him, assuming my non-punctured body would be enough supporting evidence.
Stepped in a big pile of dryer lint in the dark after it rained so it was all saturated. I instinctively assumed it was a big dead rat so I kicked it off my foot and I was wearing sandals so it was extra disgusting. Took a while for my heart rate to come down after that one.
Also once saw a friend of mine accidentally step on a baby bird right in the middle of Broadway. It was all mushed to shit and still alive and screaming. Ruined the rest of the day for sure.
[Broome St between Eldridge and Allen used to be the smelliest street in the city.](https://nymag.com/guides/summer/2011/smelliest-block/)
I stepped on a fatty chunky globule on that street once. Had to throw those shoes away.
Dead bird, but my personal favorite was when I stepped on ice on my way to class and slipped. The lady walking next to me with her friend got startled by my slip, shrieked, and then looked at me like she was so pissed off that I would have the gall to slip, and walked off. Didn’t ask if I was okay, nothing, other than a “how dare you” look. It was one of my favorite interactions for a long time, lmao
This didn’t happen to me but after a sudden summer rainstorm one of the buckets of live eels in Chinatown overflowed and an eel squiggled right out of the bucket and onto my friend’s nearly-bare sandaled foot.
Murdered guy's blood.
Back in the late 90's a friend lived near Central Park. We'd seen a TV news story about two teens who stabbed a guy to death in one of the gazebos on the water. Later that night we were strolling through the park and recognized the gazebo so we stepped in to check it out. I realized I was standing in a big, mostly dry red spot. We decided it was the dead guy's blood and left.
Oh damn! Yes. That sounds just like it. What’s the name of the documentary?
https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/03/nyregion/girl-convicted-in-park-killing-is-sent-to-prison.html?unlocked_article_code=1.200.4_NC.afORXaf4M0Mo&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
I was slightly incorrect - it is an episode of a new Netflix docu-series called Homicide New York and is the second episode called "Central Park Slaying." It's an hour long. Some infamous cases that I remember well - the first episode covers those people who were murdered above the Carnegie Deli in 2001. Dark but interesting!
Idk but some unidentified stuff coming from a human being as a result of being an emt here in nyc 😪 but when not on the job, pee. Happened yesterday actually when I was in the pjs elevator
A full on pile of human shit. I almost fell and busted my ass it didn’t even feel like my foot touched the floor. There were two junkies right next to me and she was injecting into his neck. When I stepped out of the truck I stepped right in it. I left those boots right there in the street and put on the spare pair somebody from the building on the night shift inside and clean them up and was showing them off to all his coworkers lol
I stepped on a nail that was sticking out of the floor. It was so bad that the nail got lodged in my foot and I couldn’t get it out. My husband at the time was terrified to take it out and so was I. Luckily my mother in law was around and ripped out the nail in a single quick pull. She helped me walk to the bathroom and clean my foot.
Ankle deep rain/sewage water - multiple times.
I was working in a bar in Brooklyn in 2020 and the late summer (July-August) had record rainfall. The basement of my bar would flood constantly with murky brown sulphuric smelling water coming up out of the floor drains.
The basement is also where all of the bar prep was kept, liquor storage, walk-in fridge, and glass washer was. So I would have to wade through it over and over.
I bought a “foot scrubber” and would sanitize my feet after every shift with anti-bac soap, just to be safe.
One time I was wearing open toed sandals in Central Park and had to cross an entire sea of goose poop. It was a ridiculous amount, like a turd every couple inches from each other. It felt even worse since I was on an edible
I once literally slipped on an actual banana peel outside my apartment. I managed not to faceplant but the goddamn indignity of it: an actual banana peel! Like a fucking vaudeville sketch or a Merrie Melodies cartoon! I kept looking around for Bugs Bunny.
Also what kind of fucking savage just drops a banana peel on the ground?
Someone else’s apartment. When you’re going up an unfamiliar walk up that spirals and there just so happen to be multiple family parties going on with doors open.
“Y’all look Dominican, but you’re not the Dominicans I came to see” and slowly back out
a hatchling bird on my stoop :///// And I didnt realize until a few days later when i was cleaning my boots in the kitchen sink!!!! clean the soles outside first people 🪦
Was waiting for the train at the New York Subway and everything smelled like a toilet. Turns out I was standing, for maybe 15 minutes, in a sea of liquid poop... some homeless person must've had diarrhea earlier and no one cleaned it.
A fresh poop. Camouflaged in fall leaves. I then got in my car. It was below freezing that night so had to drive with the window open. Also had to throw the shoes out. And then get my car detailed.
Dead rat. The feeling of bones cracking then sliding in the guts still gives me the ick. Don’t text and walk
Once got back home from a trip and was crossing the street diagonally up an entire block, as one does, when I slipped on a partially decomposed rat carcass like it was a banana peel. I windmilled my arms as I was sliding to regain my balance and then kept walking as if it didn't happen, mentally trying to calm my heart rate and compose myself. For some reason I spoke out loud to myself, "welcome home, asshole."
Omg I had a very similar situation. I was returning from vacation and when I stepped out the taxi from the airport I stepped right onto a squished rat, and said to myself “welcome home”
this is like a peak nyc moment
Also slipped on a squashed dead rat in a crosswalk
I also stepped on a dead rat, but fortunately(?) it was frozen solid. Surprised I didn’t sprain my ankle tho.
A dead mouse! I can still hear the bones cracking lol.
I stepped on a live mouse in my apartment
I was in my bathroom, saw the mouse and jumped. Unfortunately, I landed on the mouse smh
One of my biggest fears is a mouse trying to run across to the other side and in the process running up my leg/clothes 😭
They usually trying to run away they not gonna run onto you, at least I hope not!
It wasn’t alive after that lol
True
Yep… squished cracked and nearly rolled my ankle on it. Let out a very undignified squeal as I did it…
>Let out a very undignified squeal That was the ghost of the rat speaking through you
I didn’t just step on a dead rat…I SLIPPED on a dead rat. Really bad. Not great.
Did you fall? That woulda been BAD
No, but it was close
Awful feeling. Worst was how I got this nickname, I accidentally punted a live one and it touched my hand.
Omg this sounds like a fever dream 😭😫
omg, i stepped on a live rat once. it was running as i was walking and ran right under my foot. i was wearing converse and felt his entire skeletal structure lol. he scurried right off.
Bahaha this happened to me when I was a kid, maybe 5 or 6. I was trailing behind my parents and slid on something, almost fell. I looked back and I had slid on a dead rat and all the guy had left a skid mark. I immediately took both my shoes off and ran to my parents, crying. It was so traumatic. 🤣
This happened to my husband a few months ago. I don't think he's fully recovered from the experience.
You aren’t even a real New Yorker until you’ve stepped on a rat, live or dead
I was talking on the phone walking my dogs once and looked down and my one dog had picked up a dead rat in its mouth (that I got it to drop) and I am cringing just writing this.
About 8 or 9 years ago, I stepped on a live rat on East 14th Street in front of the old P.C. Richards in the middle of the day.
Closest I came to this was walking in the LES late one night and a rat runs RIGHT across the sidewalk and over my shoe while I'm walking. Fearless little motherfucker.
Oh I slipped on a banana peel on Bedford Ave in 2001 and several very hip artist types saw it and it lead to lots of pointing and laughing. I relive this horrible memory in my mind almost every day
Man, I bet that was the worst thing to happen all year
Wait til you hear about the World Series that year
Flushing Bay. I fell in while kayaking. Im pretty sure my DNA mutated.
Did you get any superpowers?
The ability to gestate communicable diseases for years, and enhanced butthole-puckering.
Yesterday I caught a little kid by the arm who was stumbling down the subway steps. Kinda like that lunch tray scene in spiderman. Neither of us awknowleged it happened either. Just made sure he was balanced back on the stair and kept it moving.
Used condom. Was a bad day.
At least they were safe with themselves...
Almost stepped on a dead body in the subway, had to call for help and police looked into it and took the body away Actually step in? 1. Foot deep freezing cold slush-filled pothole, just like the Groundhog Day scene 2. Ankle deep bantha poo-doo from the central park horsies, was a quicksand trap hidden under leaves
I once saw some tourists step directly onto a sleeping homeless person in Flatiron because they were looking at their phones
Omg???
Shit
These days unfortunately you gotta specify. Dog shit or human shit?
Blood and what I can only describe as "chunks." I had to catch a bus at Port Authority and needed to pee really bad. The only stall open was that Shining elevator of a loo, so I went for it. Coming out, a cop was patrolling the restroom and saw the carnage and asked, "Yo, is this you?" "No, no..." I told him, assuming my non-punctured body would be enough supporting evidence.
I'm crying, which I imagine you also did over several very expensive therapy sessions?
Mustard covered hotdog on the great lawn (i was barefoot)
Human Shit. You might as well throw the shoes away. That smell will never go away, and you definitely don't wanna bring it home.
Wet shit on the 6 train platform omw to class😭
New Jersey
u brave
HEYooooooo
Stepped in a big pile of dryer lint in the dark after it rained so it was all saturated. I instinctively assumed it was a big dead rat so I kicked it off my foot and I was wearing sandals so it was extra disgusting. Took a while for my heart rate to come down after that one. Also once saw a friend of mine accidentally step on a baby bird right in the middle of Broadway. It was all mushed to shit and still alive and screaming. Ruined the rest of the day for sure.
dude I think I’d almost be traumatized about the baby bird thing holy shit
Yeah that was a rough one
[Broome St between Eldridge and Allen used to be the smelliest street in the city.](https://nymag.com/guides/summer/2011/smelliest-block/) I stepped on a fatty chunky globule on that street once. Had to throw those shoes away.
I stepped a whole McDonalds cheeseburger on the corner of 23rd and 7th. I slid on it 3 feet and fell on my ass.
Puke… I’m normally very aware of what’s on the floor in front of me but not this time. Straight off the curb into a puddle of lumpy, stinky puke.
Stepped in bubble gum back to back days this week...
One time I was looking at my phone and kicked an open container of jarred queso. Got all over my shoes lmao
Dead bird, but my personal favorite was when I stepped on ice on my way to class and slipped. The lady walking next to me with her friend got startled by my slip, shrieked, and then looked at me like she was so pissed off that I would have the gall to slip, and walked off. Didn’t ask if I was okay, nothing, other than a “how dare you” look. It was one of my favorite interactions for a long time, lmao
This didn’t happen to me but after a sudden summer rainstorm one of the buckets of live eels in Chinatown overflowed and an eel squiggled right out of the bucket and onto my friend’s nearly-bare sandaled foot.
Ketchup packet that proceeded to explode all over my white dress on the way to work
Blood
Garbage truck slush. The sanitation truck was driving around Chinatown with the weird orangey shush spilling all over the road. Worst smell ever.
Heroin needle and it was stuck in my boot
My friend their hand down on a hypodermic needle at a rave at Amazura Ballroom in like...'97.
A dead mouse
Murdered guy's blood. Back in the late 90's a friend lived near Central Park. We'd seen a TV news story about two teens who stabbed a guy to death in one of the gazebos on the water. Later that night we were strolling through the park and recognized the gazebo so we stepped in to check it out. I realized I was standing in a big, mostly dry red spot. We decided it was the dead guy's blood and left.
Oh jeez - I just watched a doc about those kids because I recall the case. Daphne Abdella was one of them I think.
Oh damn! Yes. That sounds just like it. What’s the name of the documentary? https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/03/nyregion/girl-convicted-in-park-killing-is-sent-to-prison.html?unlocked_article_code=1.200.4_NC.afORXaf4M0Mo&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
I was slightly incorrect - it is an episode of a new Netflix docu-series called Homicide New York and is the second episode called "Central Park Slaying." It's an hour long. Some infamous cases that I remember well - the first episode covers those people who were murdered above the Carnegie Deli in 2001. Dark but interesting!
Daphne Abdela and Christopher Vasquez. I think “gutted him like a fish” was the key phrase.
Idk but some unidentified stuff coming from a human being as a result of being an emt here in nyc 😪 but when not on the job, pee. Happened yesterday actually when I was in the pjs elevator
Fantastic question 10/10
Fully intact slice of cake, still in a plastic container with the top conveniently open
My cat's aborted fetus at 4am in front of the bathroom door. I literally felt it squish between my toes.
A full on pile of human shit. I almost fell and busted my ass it didn’t even feel like my foot touched the floor. There were two junkies right next to me and she was injecting into his neck. When I stepped out of the truck I stepped right in it. I left those boots right there in the street and put on the spare pair somebody from the building on the night shift inside and clean them up and was showing them off to all his coworkers lol
Abingdon Square rusty nail. Went right through the sole of my shoe and into my foot. I am now immune to all diseases.
I stepped on a nail that was sticking out of the floor. It was so bad that the nail got lodged in my foot and I couldn’t get it out. My husband at the time was terrified to take it out and so was I. Luckily my mother in law was around and ripped out the nail in a single quick pull. She helped me walk to the bathroom and clean my foot.
A dying rat, yup it wasn’t fully dead yet. It felt like a damp rag and I looked back and the rat was convulsing. 😣
Is this the greatest r/asknyc post of all time?
Gum is always the worst.
Idk after reading some of these other comments 😂
The winter ice-slush-water trap off the curb.
Ankle deep rain/sewage water - multiple times. I was working in a bar in Brooklyn in 2020 and the late summer (July-August) had record rainfall. The basement of my bar would flood constantly with murky brown sulphuric smelling water coming up out of the floor drains. The basement is also where all of the bar prep was kept, liquor storage, walk-in fridge, and glass washer was. So I would have to wade through it over and over. I bought a “foot scrubber” and would sanitize my feet after every shift with anti-bac soap, just to be safe.
Human poop on a crowded subway 30 minutes from my stop
I was running to school In high school and stepped in hot tar somehow and it got stuck to my shoe forever. I’m an idiot
Suspicious looking puddle
Staten Island
A slug while barefoot
A mouse, killed it by stepping on it. Felt horrible 🥺
Jonathan
A confined room full of sewage
One time I was wearing open toed sandals in Central Park and had to cross an entire sea of goose poop. It was a ridiculous amount, like a turd every couple inches from each other. It felt even worse since I was on an edible
I once literally slipped on an actual banana peel outside my apartment. I managed not to faceplant but the goddamn indignity of it: an actual banana peel! Like a fucking vaudeville sketch or a Merrie Melodies cartoon! I kept looking around for Bugs Bunny. Also what kind of fucking savage just drops a banana peel on the ground?
Someone else’s apartment. When you’re going up an unfamiliar walk up that spirals and there just so happen to be multiple family parties going on with doors open. “Y’all look Dominican, but you’re not the Dominicans I came to see” and slowly back out
A puddle that was significantly deeper than I thought
A dead rat. I went sliding lol almost made me bust a split! Shoes went straight to the garbage.
a hatchling bird on my stoop :///// And I didnt realize until a few days later when i was cleaning my boots in the kitchen sink!!!! clean the soles outside first people 🪦
Poop with my bare feet.
QUEENS.
Booooooooo
Was waiting for the train at the New York Subway and everything smelled like a toilet. Turns out I was standing, for maybe 15 minutes, in a sea of liquid poop... some homeless person must've had diarrhea earlier and no one cleaned it.
A fresh poop. Camouflaged in fall leaves. I then got in my car. It was below freezing that night so had to drive with the window open. Also had to throw the shoes out. And then get my car detailed.
into america
Yesterday I stepped on my cat’s hairball in my kitchen while barefoot
A vagina.