Dumpster-Diving Raccoon Realizes He’s Hit Rock Bottom

The cops had to get involved.

It all started with just one little taste. A taste of leftover people food. The good stuff.

Harmless as that wee nibble must have seemed at the time, it wasn’t. For this raccoon, it was a gateway snack. He got hooked, leading him down the road to ruin.

And recently, the cops got involved.

Sean Bailey

The other day, Officer Sean Bailey of the Amherst Police Department in New York was called to the scene of the raccoon's low point in life. It was inside a dumpster filled with discarded food. The raccoon had climbed in to get his fix. But there was a problem.

He got stuck. 

“When I first approached the dumpster, I saw the little guy huddled up in the corner,” Bailey told The Dodo. “He looked up at me with his little puppy eyes, eventually turning away from me and hiding his face in the corner.”

Sean Bailey

Bailey was able to gently lift the rueful raccoon out of the dumpster, but lifting his spirits wouldn't be so easy.

Having been led astray by desire for forbidden food, the raccoon seemed riddled with shame.

He'd hit rock bottom.

Sean Bailey

Fortunately for the raccoon, that meant one thing — the only way to go from there was up. And thanks to Bailey's assistance, he got the second chance he needed to get back on the straight and narrow.

"I released him there, right back into the wooded area behind the dumpster," Bailey said.

Hopefully, the raccoon's dumpster-diving days are over, and he'll go back to getting his fill on foods raccoons are supposed to eat. After all, getting stuck in a big trash bin isn't anybody's idea of fun.

"He better have [learned his lesson]. Because next time I catch him playing in the dumpster, he’s going straight to jail," Bailey joked.