The Redwood City, Calif. bank was closed at the time of the unusual crime.
Two masked intruders secretly made their way inside the branch, but were caught red handed before they could really get up to no good. That’s when a customer using the ATM early Tuesday morning spoiled their caper.
“At first, he thought he was seeing a stuffed animal on top of a desk inside the bank, but then he saw the animal move and realized he was staring directly at a live raccoon and called PHS/SPCA,” the Peninsula Humane Society and SPCA said in a statement.
When animal officers — not police — showed up, they found two juvenile raccoons.
“It’s not every day an animal organization gets called to deal with a bank break in, but since the bank robbers were masked bandits of the wildlife kind, we were indeed the appropriate responders,” PHS/SPCA spokesperson Buffy Martin Tarbox said.
That’s when officers went to work.
“The bank managers let our rescue staff into the bank, and after about ten minutes of chasing the raccoons around the bank, we were finally able to safely shoo them outside,” she added. “They apparently didn’t want to leave the bank.”
There was enough time for the humane society to capture crime scene photos.
Showing the cutest would-be thieves.
Once the rascally raccoons were out, officials worked on deconstructing the crime.
“There were muddy pawprints on a tree outside the bank, so we suspect the raccoons climbed the tree to the roof of the bank, and then somehow managed to crawl into the air ducts and fell through the ceiling tiles onto the floor of the bank,” Tarbox explained.
“There were several broken ceiling tiles, and the masked bandits knocked papers around and even a computer over.”
No person, nor raccoon, was injured in the ordeal.
“And to our knowledge they didn’t abscond with any money,” Tarbox added.
A true victimless crime.
Photos: PHS/SPCA
