Raccoon's head gets stuck in can; cop comes to the rescue

POMONA, N.Y. - A police officer in Rockland County responded to a call to perform an unusual animal rescue on Sunday: a raccoon had gotten its head stuck in a tin can.

The Town of Ramapo Police Department shared a video showing the officer's delicate operation. The video shows a raccoon dashing around a backyard in Pomona. The blinded raccoon bumps into a bush, a fence, a concrete deck, a wall, and more, the video shows. 

"Today, [Police Officer] Byrnes got sent to a residence in Pomona, where the homeowner reported having a raccoon with a can stuck on its head in the yard," police said on Facebook. "As you can see, the can was really stuck!" 

The cop puts on gloves and tries to pull the can off the critter's head several times but the tin remains stuck, the video shows. 

"Thanks to PO Byrnes' persistence and love of animals (and maybe a bit fearless) he was able to remove the can," police said. 

After several failed attempts, Byrnes grabs the raccoon by the tail to hold it still and then pulls off the can with his other hand, flinging the animal clear into the bushes, the video shows. Byrnes is seen on the video smiling as someone else is heard saying, "Good job."

Raccoons are very common all over New York state, according to the state's Department of Environmental Conservation.

"The adaptable raccoon can be found everywhere, from the most remote forest to the crowded inner city," DEC states on its website. "Raccoon populations often are more dense in large cities than in the wild, but abundance varies widely in different types of habitat and different parts of the state."

Pomona is a village in the Lower Hudson Valley about 35 miles from Midtown Manhattan.

With Storyful.

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