Body of Man Found Rolled Up in Carpet Outside of NYC Starbucks with His Feet Sticking Out
The body of an unidentified man was found rolled up in carpet outside of a New York City Starbucks early Thursday morning.
At around 5:52 a.m., police received an alarming call about an unconscious individual wrapped in a rug with his feet sticking out in front of 301 West 145 Street in Harlem, Detective Sophia T. Mason with the New York City Police Department tells PEOPLE.
After police arrived, EMS also responded to the incident and pronounced the man dead at the scene, Mason says.
The man’s cause of death has not yet been determined and the investigation remains ongoing.
A Starbucks employee made the harrowing discovery and alerted the doorman of a neighboring building, ABC 7 New York reported.
The man, whose identity has not been revealed to the public, appeared to be in his 20s or 30s, according to the outlet. When police found him, he was fully clothed, wearing grey sweatpants and a T-shirt and seemed to have suffered wounds to his head.
He had no driver’s license or form of identification on him, police said, according to ABC 7. The man was also wrapped in plastic.
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“We have some potential wounds to the head, the medical examiner is on scene, and we’ll have to wait for an official autopsy,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said, according to ABC 7. “We’ll go from there.”
Just a few feet away from the body was a red shopping cart, which police believe was used to transport the man up the hill to the Starbucks where he was left to die, according to ABC 7.
Sources told the news outlet that surveillance footage from nearby shows two people pushing the cart, which appeared to have a body inside, up the street.
The Starbucks has since been closed for the day, according to the New York Post.
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The incident has left residents of the area both traumatized and frightened.
“This is some Law & Order s—,” Anike Rabiu, 45, told the New York Post. “This is a fairly busy intersection … it sounds like somebody might have offed [him] somewhere and the had to get rid of it.”
“I was on my way to school and was coming up the block and saw all the cops and ambulances,” witness Christopher Brown told ABC 7 New York. “It was crazy. I know the Starbucks workers were all standing there in shock.”
