NEW YORK (WPIX/CNN) - Showdown on the Lower East Side of Manhattan: a tenacious family of rats vs. Alec Steinfield's Volkswagen – and posted on social media by a celebrity.

When Steinfeld left his apartment in Brooklyn to go to work last Friday, he started driving his car, and smelled what he thought was roadkill.

But it's the city, so Steinfeld kept going, until he was stopped in his tracks on at the intersection of Rivington and Essex. 

"It seemed like my engine was overheating, and then all of a sudden, it started catching fire," Steinfeld said.

His initial instinct was to extinguish the fire.

"I tried to open up my hood and there were two baby dead rats on the ledge so there was a lot of confusion," he said.

Because of the amount of smoke, Steinfeld called the New York Fire Department. When they arrived, the firefighters had to smash through his windshield because the fire had spread.

Before this incident, Steinfeld's car was parked in the same place for a week. Several rats made themselves at home below his hood - and started chewing.

"Rats ate through the engine," Steinfeld said.

Just when you thought this story was already crazy – Steinfeld had a celebrity witness.

"I am watching my car get mauled by a rat fire, seeing Tony Hawk capture this across the street," Steinfeld said.

Skateboarding professional Tony Hawk recorded the insane rat inferno and shared it on Instagram.

Hawk snapped a selfie with Steinfeld while he waited four hours for a tow truck.

"It was pretty wild and gross," Steinfeld said.

Copyright 2017 Alec Steinfeld, Tony Hawk, WPIX via CNN. All rights reserved.