Brooklyn, N.Y., is suffering from an epidemic of oppossums -- after the city council introduced the marsupials to the streets in the hope they would take care of the borough's rat problem, the New York Post reported Sunday.
The opossums were set free in local parks and underneath the Coney Island boardwalk two years ago, with the theory being they would die off once they ate the rats, said Councilman Domenic Recchia in a 2007 Brooklyn forum, according to notes taken by the local neighborhoods chairwoman, Theresa Scavo.
However, not only did the rat problem grow, but the opposums began entering yards, eating from garbage cans and feeding off fruit trees.
A city sanitation department spokeswoman said it was not involved with the Brooklyn opossum drop, and the health department also did not have any record of it.
Read more: New York Post
