Raccoon's head stuck in peanut butter jar
A raccoon, with a peanut butter jar stuck on its head, is perched on top pf a utility pole on Peconic Street in Ronkonoma. (March 27, 2011) Credit: Stringer News
Give a raccoon a prop and a perch, and it will command a neighborhood's attention.
It happened Sunday in Ronkonkoma, when the furry scavenger got itself in a sticky situation with an empty peanut butter jar and a utility pole. Stuck atop the pole -- its head in the jar -- the raccoon brought out a dozen curious residents, and after eight hours, the Long Island Power Authority came to the rescue.
"Just about every neighbor was standing out there," said Patricia Cafiero, who lives on Peconic Street where the spectacle took place. "You had every car passing very slowly."
Cafiero's neighbor, Debbie Sullivan, first noticed the critter on the pole in front of her house about 7 a.m. She and her husband contacted Suffolk police, the Town of Islip and the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
They were told that little could be done, they said.
Children pointed, some naming the raccoon Skippy. News crews circled below.
"He definitely wasn't coming down with all those people around," Sullivan noted.
Finally, at about 3 p.m., LIPA was dispatched. A worker used a long catch pole to grab the animal. The jar fell off its head in the process.
"Skippy" was let go and scampered to freedom.
Residents had reported seeing the raccoon with the jar on its head for nearly a month -- apparently it could still breathe and reach its mouth to eat during that time.
"Hopefully," said Cathy Horvath, a local wildlife rescuer, "he'll learn a lesson: Stay away from peanut butter."
