A man who dumped milk and a large tub of cereal on a subway car in a TikTok stunt was called out by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for putting unnecessary strain on essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
The TikTok account "fckjoshy" posted a video Tuesday in which the man drops a large storage tub of milk and cereal on the floor of a subway train, presumably as a prank. The video gained 3.2 million views on the app before someone posted it to Twitter, where it got 5 million more views.
The MTA condemned the unidentified man's stunt Wednesday for the strain it put on essential workers during the pandemic.
"A new low: Pulling a prank on essential workers in the middle of a global pandemic," the MTA said on its official Twitter account. "And making essential workers clean up your mess. Despicable."
Social media users on both platforms also called out the user, who has about 3.3 million TikTok followers.
"As a New Yorker, this is not it," a TikTok user commented. "Think about the people who have to clean that. They already have a lot to do during the pandemic. Not cool."
Another user commented simply, "you're revolting."
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People on Twitter also had harsh words, saying the man was a public nuisance and even calling for him to be arrested or fined.
The "fckjoshy" account on TikTok has millions of views for similar videos. A video posted just a day before the train video shows the man walking around stores with a hole cut into a mask. It had more than a million views.
An email address associated with the account did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The MTA announced last month that its overnight service would be partly suspended for cleaning following reports of a growing homeless population on the trains and poor sanitary conditions amid the pandemic.
About a third of the 85,000 deaths in the U.S. from the coronavirus have come in New York state, according to NBC News data as of Thursday. The MTA reported its first worker death in March, and more than 1,500 of its employees had tested positive for the virus by early April.
A page on the MTA site devoted to honoring its workers who have died of the coronavirus lists over 100 names.
