Brooklyn Man Giving Away Life-Size Hamster Wheel to Make Room for Some Friends

UPDATE: It was a hoax.

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Physical exercise turned into an exercise in humiliation for one Brooklyn man who, after building a life-size hamster wheel that somehow fit in his New York City apartment, is now giving it away for free on Craigslist.

Here’s an excerpt from the ad posted last night:

FREE HUMAN SIZED HAMSTER WHEEL AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE PICK UP. CAN ACCOMODATE UP TO 200 LBS. FULLY FUNCTIONAL. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR HOUSES WITH SMALL CHILDREN OR ANIMALS. 50 LBS OF SHREDDED NEWSPAPER ALSO AVAILABLE.

The owner, who calls himself Sandra Z. Zzz, originally built the wheel when he was working at a pet shop and could no longer afford a gym membership, he told New York magazine’s Daily Intelligencer. He would run on it four times a day, but now he has a better job at an ice cream shop and can afford “more conventional training methods.”

He decided to ditch the wheel, which took about a year to make, because he was sick of explaining it to visitors. “When I have a great conversation with someone and I bring them over to my house and there’s a hamster wheel, it’s this whole thing, then we talk about my childhood and stuff, it’s too much,” he told Gothamist.

Yes, sounds about as repetitive as…running on a hamster wheel.

UPDATE: Looks like the hamster wheel was really just an elaborate prank between friends. The wheel is actually owned by a Seattle man named Luke Trerice and is not really for sale. Another day, another Internet hoax.

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