<p>I was reading part of an article written by someone living in Baltimore, excerpted below, and it reminded me of a couple months I spent living at Hopkins once. There were giant (2-3 foot long) rats that came out every evening around 6 or 7pm. Their tails were about as thick as a climbing rope. It was pretty gross. We did throw some food to them a couple times to try to get them away from the middle of the sidewalk. I thought it made the campus pretty "colorful."</p>
<p>Is the campus still infested with these beasts?</p>
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<p>Last night was exciting, but not in a fun way... heard noises coming from the vacant house. He called me over to listen and it definitely sounded like banging. I dialed 911 and asked for officers to come to the back of the house because there was somebody in there. It took them less than 10 minutes to arrive, which in this city is a borderline miracle. I saw four cars out front and watched them sneak around back, quiet as could be. It was right out of a movie! They got to the property... the correct property (hard to do when the numbers are only on the front) and snuck quietly through the open gate, shined the lights on the cellar door, then stormed in! </p>
<p>They definitely encountered several someones inside, but alas, they were of the rodent variety. Big giant rats, according to the cop we talked to afterwards. Matt and I were watching from the kitchen and it definitely sounded like they were talking to somebody, but the footsteps they heard running up the stairs away from them were just rats! They said the rats ran across the dropped ceiling and fell through. He even chased them upstairs, but no two-legged mammals were found. I think the rats may have shook them up more than if they had found people though... they were very animated in their retelling of the incident and still looked a bit creeped out by it. One of the officers, who I later realized was the same one that helped me (or didn't) during my wreck, held his hands out to illustrate how big they were... apparently two feet long! I can believe it... I've seen some that big, just didn't know they'd moved indoors! But with the freeze, who can blame them?</p>
<p>We felt a little sheepish about calling in rats to 911, but the officers thanked us for calling... said they definitely thought the rats sounded like people when they went into the house.</p>
<p>About two hours later, after I'd fallen asleep, Matt called 911 again because this time he heard moaning coming from the house. And since the cause of that last fire were the prostitutes, according to the neighborhood gossip, he called it in. Two different officers arrived this time and checked it out, and again found nothing. I'm guessing that if there are people in there, they are really good about hiding, but I don't know how they can be in there with all those rats! ....</p>
<p>On the news last night there were reports of 6 arsons in vacant houses, all occurring within an hour of each other... something makes me think they decided to take these "people in vacant houses" calls seriously last night. They even flew the ghetto bird over the house after Matt called. Now that's service. I wish the guy would just board up the cellar... this is getting ridiculous. It's obvious the rats weren't the ones prying open the metal doors and busting in.....I'd hate to be part of the crew that has to go in and gut that giant-rat-filled house. BLECH.</p>