A man dumping a large tub of cereal on a subway car for 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 on Tuesday to the account 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 the clip to Twitter, where it received another 5 million views.
The MTA condemned the unidentified man’s stunt for the strain it put on essential workers amid the pandemic on Wednesday.
“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, for bad behavior.
“As a New Yorker, this is not it,” one 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 simply commented, “you’re revolting.”
People on Twitter also had harsh words for the man, calling him a public nuisance and even calling for him to be arrested or fined for the inconsiderate behavior.
The “fckjoshy” account on TikTok has millions of views for similar videos. A video posted just a day prior to the train video shows the man walking around stores with a hole cut into a face mask had more than a million views.
An email associated with the “fckjoshy” account did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
The MTA announced last month its overnight service would be partially 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 people that have died in the U.S. from the coronavirus pandemic have died 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 tested positive for the virus by early April.
A page on the MTA site devoted to honoring its workers who have died of coronavirus lists over 100 names.
