Realizing that the villagers of Alexandra, South Africa might need some added incentive to help take care of the hordes of rats plaguing them, a mobile phone company is offering a free cell phone to each person that catches 60 rats.
And to think, the Pied Piper did it for nothing but the glory, fame, and all the free rat meat he could eat.
Alexandra is famous for being the Nelson Mandela’s first home when he moved to Johannesburg, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming one of the most rundown, decrepit suburbs of South Africa’s largest city. The ramshackle homes and illegal garbage dumps make it an ideal breeding ground for rats.
From The Guardian…
In an attempt to fight back, city officials have distributed cages and the mobile phone company 8ta has sponsored the volunteer ratcatchers.
Resident Joseph Mothapo says he has won two phones and plans to get one for each member of his family. “It’s easy,” he told South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper, wielding a large cage containing rats. “You put your leftover food inside and the rats climb in, getting caught as the trap door closes.”
8ta has since denied they are the ones behind the “rats for phones” initiative, instead saying it is the local charity known as Lifeline that’s responsible. Still, if you’re disgusted by vermin like many people are, then this deal probably wouldn’t appeal to you, no matter how hard up you were for a cell phone. On the plus side, it would be a great way to make your kids earn their cell phones. Chances are that they’d balk at the idea, and if not, not only are your rat problems over, but your kids would have learned a valuable lesson…how to properly kill and dispose of rats and other rodents.
