Huge Rat Terrifies Swedish Family and Their Cat

An enormous rat measuring almost 16 inches, without counting its tail, terrified a Swedish family and its cat. In Solna, north of Stockholm, Signe Bengtsson told The Local that the family cat was too frightened to enter the kitchen. She stated:

“We thought it could be a little mouse, but after a while we figured it couldn’t be because it was making too much noise.”  A few days later, she saw the rat eating leftovers under the kitchen sink: “It was right there in our rubbish bin, a mighty monster. I was petrified. I couldn’t believe such a big rat could exist,” she said. 

I couldn’t help but do the old classic and jump on the kitchen table and scream.”  

Her husband Erik Korsås, away from home, did not believe his wife when she told him. He admitted, “When my wife called I said ‘Yeah, sure, take it easy, I’ll be home on Sunday. But by then it had jumped into the waste bin and had a Swedish smörgåsbord with all the leftovers.”  

The next day, the family stomped when they walked so the rat would not come near them. “By the time I got home, the rat was so domesticated that it just sat under the kitchen table,” Korsås explained.

Finally the rat found a nook behind the dishwasher, prompting the family to call pest control, who came with three heavy-duty traps. Even when the rat was caught by the neck, it did not die, running behind the dishwasher again.

Even when it died, Korsås said, “The kids were afraid it would come back to life as some sort of zombie rat. They didn’t want to touch it.” Bengtsson said, “It was quite a shocking experience. No one wanted to go into the kitchen after, and the cat was terrified for a week. The pest controllers said they’d never seen such a big rat before.”

Korsås joked, “One of my sons said it was a Putin rat at breakfast this morning. But my older son, who has a few more years of education under his belt, said it was much more like a Viking rat and I agree with him.’