'Subway Creatures' Instagram Account Wiped Of Viral Videos

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — If it wasn't for Rick McGuire, the world might never have seen the stone-faced straphanger clutching the outside of a subway train, or two of the most joyful buskers anyone's ever seen. The "Subway Creatures" account collected some of New York City's most colorful subterranean characters and made the Hell's Kitchen resident into a social media celebrity.

Now it's gone — at least for the moment.

McGuire, a freelance TV producer by day, discovered Saturday night that his account had been deleted, its more than 680,000 followers and hundreds of posts wiped away. "A shock and a helpless feeling" came over him, he told Patch in an Instagram message.

"I can’t really explain the feeling that hit me in that moment," McGuire wrote in a blog post Monday. "Something less than finding out your dog died but something gut wrenching enough to make you realize this could be a huge game changer in your life."

Though he suspects he was hacked, McGuire doesn't know what happened. He said he's started the "grueling process" of trying to recover his account, though he hasn't heard anything from Instagram. He's still got his blog, citysubwaycreatures.com, and his Twitter account, which has more than 2,400 followers.

Patch has reached out to Instagram for comment. We'll update this story if we hear back.

McGuire created Subway Creatures in 2011, collecting submitted photos and videos of odd and awe-inspiring subway sightings. The posts are often bizarre, hilarious, tragically relatable or all three. There's a woman feeding her pet raccoon, someone trying to swipe three dollar bills through a turnstile and a pig on a leash, just to name a few.

McGuire is hoping he'll be able to get his account back. But if he can't, he'll just start a new one from scratch.

"Either way, SubwayCreatures will be back," McGuire wrote on his blog.

(Lead image via Patch)