{"id":173872,"date":"2025-12-04T01:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T01:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/173872\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T01:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T01:35:08","slug":"drunk-raccoon-breaks-into-liquor-store-downs-scotch-and-passes-out-in-bathroom-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/173872\/","title":{"rendered":"Drunk raccoon breaks into liquor store, downs scotch, and passes out in bathroom | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DrunkImage: Facebook\/ Hanover County Animal Protection Staff at a Virginia liquor store turned up for work on Saturday to find the aftermath of what looked like a small riot: smashed whisky bottles, liquor pooling across the floor and one very drunk raccoon passed out in the bathroom. The Ashland ABC store had been closed for Thanksgiving when it suffered what staff later dubbed a \u201cBlack Friday break-in\u201d. When they opened up the next morning, they followed a trail of broken glass and spilled spirits to the lavatory, where the \u201cmasked bandit\u201d was found spread-eagled between the toilet and the bin, having apparently helped itself to the bottom shelf. \u201cHe fell through one of the ceiling tiles and went on a full-blown rampage, drinking everything,\u201d Samantha Martin, an animal control officer in Hanover County, told the Daily Mail. BBC News reported that among the wreckage was the animal\u2019s apparent drink of choice: scotch. Only one blurry CCTV still exists of the boozy intruder, so no one knows exactly how much it managed to knock back before losing consciousness. Staff called Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter, and Martin collected the \u201csuspect\u201d for what the shelter jokingly described as questioning. In a Facebook post<\/a> about the incident, the shelter wrote: \u201cOn Saturday morning, Officer Martin responded to an unusual call at the Ashland ABC Store. Upon arrival, she discovered the \u2018suspect\u2019 had broken in, ransacked several shelves, and then\u2026 passed out in the bathroom. The suspect? A very intoxicated raccoon.\u201d The shelter confirmed the animal was, indeed, drunk, but otherwise unharmed. \u201cAfter 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,\u201d the post added. Martin later deadpanned that it was \u201cjust another day in the life of an animal control officer\u201d. The Ashland ABC store thanked Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter on social media for its professionalism and for giving the visitor \u201ca sober ride home\u201d. The Hanover shelter, which looks after rescued and unwanted animals, says on its website<\/a>: \u201cThe shelter provides veterinarian care for homeless or unwanted animals until they are adopted or placed with an animal rescue organization.\u201d Raccoons are, in many ways, built for this kind of misadventure. They\u2019ve adapted so successfully to human environments that researchers are starting to see physical changes associated with early domestication. \u201cWherever humans go, there is trash,\u201d Dr Raffaela Lesch, a biologist at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, recently told the Guardian. \u201cAnimals love our trash. It\u2019s an easy source of food. All they have to do is endure our presence, not be aggressive, and then they can feast on anything we throw away.\u201d In Ashland, Virginia, one raccoon appears to have taken that principle a step further: skip the bin, go straight for the bar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image: Facebook\/ Hanover County Animal Protection Staff at a Virginia liquor store turned up for work on Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[95622,95620,95623,61,60,95621,95624,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-173872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal-control-virginia","9":"tag-drunk-raccoon","10":"tag-funny-raccoon-news","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-liquor-store-break-in","14":"tag-raccoons-eating-habits","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}