The health department is investigating a fast-food restaurant in Brooklyn that appears to have been abandoned and is fouling up the neighborhood with rotting food and swarms of flies.
Dead flies, rather than hungry patrons, occupy the tables of the shuttered Popeyes in East New York, piling up on the window ledges and floors. Frustrated and puzzled passersby say they can smell the stench of rotting chicken and other food from the street.
NBC New York stopped by and confirmed the odor.
"I walk past here every day and the smell is just horrific," said Fatima Turner, who lives in the area. "My goodness, there are flies, rodents."
A health department spokeswoman said Friday that it was investigating and would try to gain access to the restaurant. If officials cannot get into the building, the property owner will be cited, the department said.
Meanwhile, garbage overflows from trash cans on the street and dumpsters behind the building of the restaurant, which received an “A” rating from the health department.
That "A" grade sign is now partially covered in flies.
A spokeswoman for the fast food joint said the owner for that particular franchise is currently in bankruptcy, but that Popeyes was “working diligently” to resolve the outstanding complaints.
An attorney for the owner of the building, Pennsylvania Avenue Management LLC, told the Daily News he wasn’t aware of the smell, or even that Popeyes had closed.
