NYPD’s elite cops no match for frisky raccoon

NEW YORK -- The city’s most elite cops were no match for this masked perp.

A rascally raccoon repeatedly outfoxed New York’s Finest on a busy Brooklyn street Tuesday — to the delight of spectators who cheered on the critter.

 

All photos: Paul Martinka

The NYPD deployed two officers from its Emergency Service Unit, a force trained to deal with hostage situations and other high-risk scenarios, to capture the animal, which was stuck in the retractable metal door at Finest Furniture 2 in Flatbush.

The cops arrived at around 12:20 p.m., and started the hunt by attempting to snag the raccoon with catch poles.

 

 

Scoffing at their feeble efforts, the frisky fellow slid down the glass storefront on its belly, landed on its feet and scurried underneath a white Toyota Camry parked about 20 feet away.

Both officers ran to the street, getting down on their hands and knees while trying to push the pest out.

A crowd of about 50 people gathered as the duo desperately tried for the next two hours to catch the beady-eyed bandit.

At one point, an elderly man walked up and offered to help the struggling cops, telling them, “I’m a hunter. I can catch it.”

The cops shooed him away and instead decided to remove the right rear tire of the sedan in hopes of finally getting their hands on the raccoon.

 

  

But the slippery animal again evaded capture — this time by darting up a tree while the highly trained cops desperately tried to lasso it.

One officer managed to get his rope near the raccoon’s body, but it wasn’t enough to stop it from scaling the tree and perching itself about 30 feet up from the ground.

By 2:45 p.m., less than 10 minutes after the raccoon scampered up the tree, the cops finally gave up on putting the persistent pest behind bars.

 

 

They retreated back to the car, where they reattached the tire and then packed up the rest of their equipment — including a small cage — and left.

The relieved raccoon kicked back on one of the branches, letting its feet hang off while it took a brief snooze.

(NYPost - Aug 24, 2016)