Rat Island doesn't really have rats, says new owner
(NEWSER) - It's 2.5 acres of rock that's mostly submerged at times, has no electricity or power, was best known for housing typhoid victims (or so goes the legend), and bears the ungainly moniker of Rat Island—and for $160,000, it could have been your little island just off the Big Apple, reports the New York Times . But Rat Island instead sold at auction yesterday, and is now the cherished property of Bronx resident Alex Schibli, 71, who says he can swim there from his house. “I feel like it has always belonged to me," he tells the New York Post . "It’s so lovely out here. You wouldn’t even believe you were in New York. And there are no rats at all!" More»