Every rational person in New York fears falling into an open sidewalk cellar. Now, thanks to stellar on-the-scene reporting from CBS New York, we have footage of one unlucky man stumbling headfirst over an open cellar door and into a Harlem deli's basement.

Surveillance cameras near the deli at 119th Street in East Harlem captured the man's fall, which Jerry Whatts witnessed first-hand.

"He didn't see what was going down. He just went right down, head first," Whatts told CBS New York. "People saw him walking toward the gate, and they tried to stop him, but it was already too late. He stumbled down the gate."

The man seen in the video sitting by the cellar doors defended his lack of reaction to CBS New York. "He went over the railing, and I can't jump up out of this chair," Joseph Primes said.

The victim, whose name was not released, reportedly suffered a head injury in the fall.