Cigarette cockroach gives pizza rat a run for his money in New York
First, there was pizza rat.
Then Hennessy's rat came by.
Now, cigarette cockroach is the newest plague in New York, captured on video that surrenders to his favourite vice.
On Friday, lawyer Tom Kretchmar tweeted the video in which the insect drags a cigarette over a sewer grate, sometimes struggling but seems determined to get its nicotine fix.
The video, recorded at the intersection of 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue, has delivered 19,000 retweets and 86,000 likes.
Kretchmar said he had watched the cockroach for 90 seconds before continuing.
The Twittersphere responded with a mix of fascination and disgust.
"Whose ex-boyfriend is this?" tweet one user.
Others showed a strange empathy for cigarette cockroach.
"I think if you have a life span of just 160 days, you might think," Why not? "" NPR host Scott Simon tweeted.
"A hell of a week has been for all of us," tweeted Josh Grubbs.
Many others joked about the insects' desire to smoke.
"This is what happens when your sheep prohibit tastes," Hannah C.M. tweeted.
Then there were only a few who could not ignore the chance of pun.
"Ah yes, the Pallmallo bug," tweeted Mat Valek.
Unfortunately, nobody knows how the story ended. Kretchmar said he could not see if the cockroach was taking a pull.
