A dramatic raccoon rescue was captured on video this week after a furry little trash panda got itself caught on the ledge of a building in Tribeca.
Police confirmed that the incident happened just before 10 a.m. on Monday at 110/112 Hudson Street near Franklin Street. Witnesses tell Gothamist that the raccoon was apparently up there for quite a while before police were able to arrive.
"Those people were there for a good 30 minutes before I arrived," said witness Nick, who captured the climax of the showdown in the video below. You can see that police held out a green tarp to soften the fall while someone climbed the building to poke the raccoon from its perch.
Nick added that when he got there, "I started filming, and it wasn’t two minutes before that thicc boi made the leap."
You can see another video of the raccoon lodged in the corner of the building before cops arrived in the video below as well.
People let out screams as the raccoon fell, but despite the tarp seemingly giving way, the raccoon appeared uninjured in the fall, staggering away quickly afterwards. Because raccoons often sleep or wedge their ways into high places, they are adept at controlling their falls—also, these sorts of incidents tend to happen more in winter.
"It was okay," witness Nick said. "I heard it hid out in someone's car engine. There was an animal activist there, too."
An NYPD spokesperson said this was marked as a "non-criminal" incident, so no other information is known.
If you're looking for more prime raccoon content, observing the quiet, silly lives of raccoons has become one of the best forms of live entertainment during the pandemic in NYC.
