This post was updated on 6/13 at 9:30 AM.
On Tuesday, one adventurous raccoon managed to captivate the city of St. Paul, Minnesota (and most of the internet), by scaling a massive 23-story office building in the city. Concerned onlookers started posting photos on Twitter with the hashtag #mprraccoon capturing the animal making its way from the ground floor all the way up to the 23rd floor of the building, where it took a break to nap outside one of the building’s windows.
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CBS affiliate WCCO-TV started hosting a livestream on Facebook of the raccoon’s rapid ascent, keeping a watchful eye on the little trash panda as a crowd of people gathered on the ground awaiting its fate. By 6:30 PM, even the St. Paul mayor had weighed in.
After a long nap outside the 23rd floor of the UBS Tower building, the raccoon seemed to realize it had made a huge mistake, and started heading down the side of the building. It reportedly got all the way to the 17th floor, before making an ambitious U-turn and climbing back up the tower, making it all the way to the roof of the building at around 2:30 AM.
And that’s where the saga of the Minnesota Public Radio raccoon has, thankfully, come to a happy end. According to the StarTribune, local animal control officers set up baited food traps for the animal at the top of the building, hoping to lure the hungry raccoon into safety after scaling an office building for more than 20 hours without food or water. According to Pioneer Press reporter Tad Veznor, the raccoon has finally been caught.
And with that, the internet can finally let out a collective sigh of relief.
Update 6/13 2:45 PM: According to local pest control business Wildlife Management Services, the adventurous raccoon (who is a she, by the way), has been released “on private residential property in the southwest suburbs of the Twin Cities,” left to climb very, very tall things for the rest of her days.
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