ASHLAND, Va. — Police responding to a break-in at a Virginia liquor store found the masked bandit at the scene of the crime.
The employee of the Ashland, Virginia, liquor store at the business and found broken ceiling tiles, bottles of scotch and whisky smashed on the floor and puddles of booze all around, The Associated Press reported.
They eventually found the burglar — a raccoon — passed out near the toilet in the store’s bathroom.
Animal control officer Samantha Martin said, “I personally like raccoons. They are funny little critters. He fell through one of the ceiling tiles and went on a full-blown rampage, drinking everything.”
Martin scooped up the drunk raccoon and took it to the animal shelter, where it slept off its night of drinking.
Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter said that the animal was not hurt.
“After a few hours of sleep and zero signs of injury (other than maybe a hangover and poor life choices), he was safely released back to the wild, hopefully having learned that breaking and entering is not the answer,” the agency wrote on Facebook.
The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority did not comment when asked by The Washington Post about the break-in.
The Post said that raccoons are curious and intelligent. It is not uncommon for them to eat fermented fruit and appear drunk.
There have been cases of raccoons breaking into liquor stores before.
A Tennessee raccoon broke into a store and broke expensive bottles of bourbon while in Brooklyn, one broke into a beer distributor and had its own private party, the Post reported.
This year, a pet raccoon named Chewy was found in a car’s driver’s seat with what looked like a meth pipe in its mouth after the car’s driver was taken into custody in a traffic stop in Springfield Township, Ohio.