So, it seems the raccoon might have a problem.
Not just the drinking — though its recent bender through a Virginia state-run liquor store did capture international headlines and the imagination of sketch comedy writers at Saturday Night Live. It may also have a bit of a break-in habit.
The raccoon, who has remained unnamed because it is, well, a wild animal, is suspected of sneaking into multiple businesses in the same Ashland shopping center before its Nov. 29 spree that landed it in the liquor store bathroom, passed out and wasted, according to county officials.
In a recent episode of local podcast “Hear in Hanover,” Animal Protection Officer Samantha Martin told county spokeswoman Kristin Smith Dunlop that the now-famous mammal is likely the same raccoon that has previously sneaked into a martial arts studio and a Department of Motor Vehicles office in the same building as the liquor store.
The striped-tail creature, which has been affectionately dubbed Hanover County’s “trashed panda,” left a trail of evidence, Martin said, including broken liquor bottles and ransacked snacks.
“Each time we get him out, we don’t relocate him because that’s a death sentence for raccoons,” Martin said. “But somehow he knows how to get back into that building. He’s a smart little critter.”
Neither the DMV nor the martial arts studio responded to requests for comment.
The raccoon may have previously been on animal control’s radar, but it wasn’t until the masked mammal went on an after-hours spree in the liquor store last month that the rest of the world came to know its story.
Sometime between when the store closed on a Friday evening and reopened Saturday morning, authorities said, the raccoon wiggled in through the ceiling of the Ashland store, triggering a motion sensor. The animal then began digging through the merchandise in storage and destroying 14 bottles of liquor: rum, scotch, whiskey, vodka, moonshine and even spiked eggnog.
Security video taken around 3:30 a.m. Saturday shows the raccoon scampering throughout the closed store and “generally having a ball,” said Virginia ABC spokeswoman Carol Mawyer.
When the store manager returned to open up shop in the morning, the storeroom aisles were slick with drink and the creature was splayed out in the employee bathroom next to the toilet.
“He locked himself in the bathroom, so he knew what he was doing,” Martin said on the podcast Thursday. “People can see the human side of it. I mean, everybody’s been there, everybody’s had a few extra and passed out by the toilet and hoped someone can come and help you the next morning.”
After a social media post from the animal welfare agency exploded, the raccoon became part international celebrity, part mascot for the county’s Animal Protection department, which has capitalized on the attention to fundraise: Merch bearing the raccoon’s likeness — passed out, face down with a drained liquor bottle knocked over beside it — has helped raise more than $200,000 for Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter as of Saturday, according to Jeffrey Parker, the department’s chief.
It’s the most money the department has seen from outside donations in at least two decades, said Parker, who has been at the agency for 19 years.
“It’s been phenomenal,” he said. “We can’t be thankful enough for what has happened.”
The agency has not decided what to do with its groundswell of new funds, though Martin said in the podcast interview that Animal Protection needs more resources to keep up with a ballooning county population and increased calls for animal welfare support.
The department is considering improvements to its water pressure system, increasing vet services or renovating its animal wash room, Parker said.
Other local organizations have also tried to get in on the raccoon action by launching themed events, slogans and ad campaigns. The Downtown Ashland Association is hosting an ongoing raccoon-based scavenger hunt to lure visitors into local businesses.
Meanwhile, Virginia Distillery Company posted a message on social media seemingly aimed at the animal: “Virginia Distillery Company: Irresistibly smooth. Even if you eat mostly trash, please drink responsibly.”
Martin, on the other hand, has used her time on the airwaves to caution humans about the dangers of handling wildlife — inebriated or not. She noted during her podcast appearance that any raccoon that bites and breaks the skin of a human must be considered a potential rabies exposure and would then be euthanized and tested for the disease.
Parker, the chief of animal protection, said he hopes the raccoon is off somewhere “doing raccoon things” and, most importantly, “staying out of trouble.”
But only time will tell if the now-infamous critter can resist the temptation to return to its favorite shopping center and slip into yet another business for a midnight snack or a nightcap.
He’s not that far away, after all.
Martin said after the raccoon slept off his alcohol-soaked spree in a dog-kennel-turned-drunk-tank at the county’s animal shelter, officers released it back into the woods about a mile from the liquor store.
But raccoons are roamers and can travel up to eight miles a day in search of a mate — or, maybe, something else.
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