{"id":55664,"date":"2025-11-29T17:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T17:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55664\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T17:20:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T17:20:13","slug":"union-wants-to-hunt-down-suspect-who-slashed-scabby-outside-nycs-babbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55664\/","title":{"rendered":"Union wants to hunt down &#8216;suspect&#8217; who slashed &#8216;Scabby&#8217; outside NYC&#8217;s Babbo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>They\u2019re determined to catch the rat that tried to kill their rodent. <\/p>\n<p>Service workers union Unite Here Local 25 wants a Manhattan court to help it uncover<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/29\/business\/scabby-the-rat-mascot-slashed-outside-reopening-of-iconic-nyc-eatery-babbo-sparking-cops-raid\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> who slashed their inflatable rat, Scabby,<\/a> during a planned protest outside the Oct. 27 grand re-opening of Greenwich Village hotspot Babbo.<\/p>\n<p>The union wants video footage from inside and outside the Waverly Place eatery; any \u201ccommunications\u201d about Scabby from Babbo\u2019s owners, including <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/05\/18\/business\/investment-firm-starr-signs-lease-at-1177-sixth\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">celebrity restaurateur\u00a0Stephen Starr\u2019s<\/a> Starr Restaurant Organization; and a list of workers who were there at the time along with their personnel records, court papers showed.<\/p>\n<p>Scabby had just been set up outside Babbo\u2019s re-opening when a union member heard a \u201chissing sound.\u201d Facebook\/DC Restaurant Workers Rising<\/p>\n<p>The owners \u201cshould be ordered to provide information that will allow Local 25 to identify the suspect,\u201d the union said in its Nov. 21 Manhattan Supreme Court filing. <\/p>\n<p>The union also wants customer information \u201csuch as credit card receipts and reservation records,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>Starr bought Babbo \u2014 the legendary Italian spot which closed after founder\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/03\/24\/del-posto-eataly-and-the-fate-of-mario-batalis-former-italian-empire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mario Batali was accused of sexual misconduct and exited the business<\/a> \u2014 in January, and was on hand for its re-opening when someone emerged from the restaurant and allegedly attacked Scabby.<\/p>\n<p>A union member shows off the lengthy slash which downed Scabby. Unite Here Local 25<\/p>\n<p>Scabby quickly deflated after the slash.  Obtained by the NY Post<\/p>\n<p>The \u201csuspect was roughly six-feet tall, with crew-cut blond or similarly colored hair, and appeared to be white,\u201d according to court papers. \u201cHe was dressed similarly to Babbo\u2019s waiters, wearing a navy or black suit with a white button-down shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A union rep was setting up Scabby when someone claiming to work for Starr told him to take down the inflatable rat and warned he was about to call cops. <\/p>\n<p>Minutes later, the rep turned away and heard \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/30\/business\/scabby-the-rat-mascot-gets-patched-up-after-nyc-slashing-and-readies-for-comeback\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the sound of air rushing out of Scabby,<\/a>\u201d and saw the \u201csuspect\u201d with a small knife, the union alleged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLocal 25 filed this action to determine who is responsible for attacking Scabby with a knife,\u201d said union spokesman Benjy Cannon, who said the group intends to file a lawsuit against the slasher once they\u2019re identified.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we find out, we will make sure they are held responsible legally for the damage done to Scabby. No one should disrupt a peaceful protest with violence like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Starr Restaurant Group did not immediately responded to a request seeking comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019re determined to catch the rat that tried to kill their rodent. Service workers union Unite Here Local&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1805,57,9,56,63,65,64,4648,14646,3555,58,9864],"class_list":["post-55664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-babbo","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-protests","tag-stephen-starr","tag-unions","tag-us-news","tag-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}