PALM BAY, Fla. — One furry bandit with a penchant for peanut butter is lucky to be alive after a rescue nearly three stories up.
- Raccoon spotted 25 feet up power pole with jar on its head
- Man called wildlife rescue experts, who then called FP&L
- Jar was removed, and "trash panda" ran away unharmed
Joe Milo was headed to a landscape job at about 9:30 Friday morning when he saw a raccoon 25 feet in the air, on top of a light pole on Olsmar Street in Palm Bay.
"(I was) driving down the road and happened to look up, and (I) saw the guy with a jar on his head," Milo said.
But a closer look revealed a much more concerning predicament.
The raccoon's head was stuck in a plastic peanut butter jar as it was perched high off the ground.
Milo quickly called Wild Florida Rescue of Brevard County.
"When he has a jar on his head, it's hard for him to breathe, so eventually he may have gotten dizzy and just fall off," says Crystene Prokop with Wild Florida Rescue.
Since the raccoon was on top of the power pole, Prokop called Florida Power & Light, which sent a lineman to help.
He made his way up in a bucket, slowly toward the mammal in a mess.
The lineman's first try didn't work — the raccoon slipped away slightly down the pole. But on the second attempt, the worker managed to slip it into a crate.
On the ground, they teamed up to wiggle the plastic jar off its head.
"It came off without any soap or anything," Prokop said.
The little guy was freed and took off across the street, gratifying the man who spotted it.
"He's free now, good to go!" exclaimed Milo with a big smile.