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Viewers Watch in Horror as Raccoon Scales 25 Story Building, Finally Makes It to Safety

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If you’re impulsive and tend to bite off more than you can chew on a regular basis, meet your mascot: a short-sighted raccoon who has been dubbed #mprraccoon.

Also known as trash pandas, bandits, and Rocket, raccoons are cute but have sharp teeth and can carry rabies.

They are notorious for getting into things they shouldn’t, eating trash and cat food and chickens and anything else they can get their grabby little hands on.

And what this little fellow got his hands on was a building in St. Paul, Minnesota. Authorities say that when this particular critter started his ascent, he was probably just doing what his type does: scavenging for bird eggs on lower levels.

Maybe that wasn’t enough of a challenge, or perhaps the gray-and-black fuzzball got scared of people who were trying to coax him down and went in the opposite direction.

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Raccoons are fine in most climbing situations. They’re nimble and scale trees all the time. But most trees aren’t 25 stories tall.



Fortunately for the little creature, the building the raccoon climbed was pebbled and so he was able to crawl up fairly easily, finding handholds aplenty.

Raccoon expert Suzanne MacDonald commented that “Raccoons don’t think ahead very much, so raccoons don’t have very good impulse control. I don’t think the raccoon realized when it started climbing what it was in for.”

People soon took note of the little raccoon who could, and it wasn’t long before he became an internet sensation and people all over the world were holding their breaths to see if he made it.

Some people joked about the determined mammal and others panicked and asked for someone to rescue the poor soul.



Celebrities got in on the hype, too. James Gunn, director of “Guardians of the Galaxy” (which features the spunky Rocket the raccoon), made a plea on Twitter.

“I’ll donate a thousand bucks to the non political charity of choice to anyone who saves this raccoon. I can’t handle this. Poor dude.”

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After taking a break for a nap partway up, the raccoon finished the 25-story climb and was captured by animal control.

Christina Valdivia, a manager at the company that owned the building, was on the roof when the raccoon finally made it and was captured, and she reported that he was doing well.

“It’s definitely a healthy raccoon,” she said. “It’s in good condition. It’s eating normally.”

The brave climber was released back into the wild after his nail-biting escapade. Hopefully he’ll stick to trees from now on!

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