Raccoon is climbing a 22 story building, for some reason
Raccoon gains fans as it perilously scales 22 stories of St. Paul office building
ST. PAUL -- After being stranded overnight on a low-hanging ledge of a downtown St. Paul office building, a raccoon spent Tuesday climbing 22 stories to unprecedented fame and notoriety, before stopping for a nap.
Several downtown Twitter users snapped photos Monday of the raccoon stranded on a second-story ledge by the Seventh Street Skyway near Cedar Street. Late Tuesday morning, June 12, maintenance employees of St. Paul’s Town Square building tried to tempt the raccoon down with a long pole, but the critter was having none of it.
Instead, it hopped over to the UBS building next door, and began climbing. And climbing.
Amid hundreds of photos and retweets from fascinated and frightened pedestrians, the raccoon finally came to a stop on the ledge of a swanky 22nd floor office — just one floor below the top. The windows there don’t open, according to office employees who asked not to be named.
Some talked, in worried tones, about nearby falcon nests atop both Wells Fargo Place and Bremer Tower.
On the street below, an onlooker thought “Wally” would make a good name for overly ambitious mammal, though Minnesota Public Radio employees — who work across the street — promptly created a hashtag “MPRracoon,” which caught on.
Laurie Brickley, spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Safety & Inspections, which oversees animal control, said, “We’ve been in touch with wildlife organizations. … We’re hoping it gets to the top so we can set a trap.”
View image on Twitter
Ben@Johnson88Ben
My picture from the 13th floor around noon. Hope he makes it down OK! #mprraccoon
She noted that an animal control officer was unclear whether the raccoon would be physically able to come down on its own.
“This morning we were talking about this. We didn’t see it and thought, it went away — that’s great!” Brickley added. “The next thing we know he’s on the 22nd floor.”/ |
