--- title: Crabs in Subway Car: Watch VIDEO description: Over the weekend, subway riders were shocked to find about 50 live crabs discarded in a subway car. canonical: https://time.com/4395615/a-bunch-of-live-crabs-were-mysteriously-dumped-in-this-subway-car/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-06T21:01:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:08.594Z og:title: This Subway Car Was Mysteriously Infested with Crabs og:description: Subway riders were shocked to find about 50 live crabs left on the train floor. og:url: https://time.com/4395615/a-bunch-of-live-crabs-were-mysteriously-dumped-in-this-subway-car/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Subway Car Was Mysteriously Infested with Crabs twitter:description: Subway riders were shocked to find about 50 live crabs left on the train floor. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A Bunch of Live Crabs Were Mysteriously Dumped in This Subway Car > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 6, 2016 9:01 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 6, 2016 9:01 PM UTC Public transportation in New York City is [hit or miss](http://time.com/3697797/new-york-city-subway-germs-bacteria-dna/?iid=sr-link3). On one hand: it’s one of the most efficient transit systems in the world, getting [5.7 million](http://web.mta.info/nyct/facts/ffsubway.htm) passengers daily from point A to point B. On the other hand: you might find [a rat eating pizza](http://time.com/4043383/rat-pizza-slice-subway/?iid=sr-link9)… or a ton of crabs scuttling around. Over the weekend, subway riders encountered an empty car on the city’s N train in Queens. Regular riders know to avoid empties as they are often filled with unappealing smells. But this one was vacated for an even less appealing reason, as about 50 crabs were on the floor of the train. “We all figured it was a horrid smell, but when we started walking past the car to get to the next one. We looked in and spotted an extremely odd sight… about 50 dead crabs. How? Why?” straphanger Shawn Petcaugh asked [_Gothamist_](http://gothamist.com/2016/07/03/photos%5Fdid%5Fanyone%5Fforget%5Ftheir%5Fdead.php). Further reporting uncovered that the crabs had previously been alive — and that someone had even attempted to save them by throwing water at them. “The guy throwing the water told me it must have been a prank against him since he was a Cancer and that it must have been done by a Scorpio,” subway rider Brian Slepian [also told _Gothamist_](http://gothamist.com/2016/07/06/subway%5Fcrab%5Fmystery%5Fshow.php?utm%5Fsource=feedly&utm%5Fmedium=webfeeds). “He came on the train after I did and, in a psychotic attempt to help the crabs, threw a liter of water onto the floor.” Stay weird, New York. > [](https://twitter.com/Gothamist/status/750703065381085184) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4395615/a-bunch-of-live-crabs-were-mysteriously-dumped-in-this-subway-car/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4395615/a-bunch-of-live-crabs-were-mysteriously-dumped-in-this-subway-car/"},"headline":"A Bunch of Live Crabs Were Mysteriously Dumped in This Subway Car","datePublished":"2016-07-06T21:01:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:08.594Z","description":"It's never a dull day in the New York City subway.","url":"https://time.com/4395615/a-bunch-of-live-crabs-were-mysteriously-dumped-in-this-subway-car/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4395615/a-bunch-of-live-crabs-were-mysteriously-dumped-in-this-subway-car/","name":"A Bunch of Live Crabs Were Mysteriously Dumped in This Subway Car"}}]}] ```