We received a call from a Burger King in a town about 30 miles away yesterday afternoon. The day shift manager told me they had 4 raccoons stuck in a dumpster behind the store. The employees were afraid to go out there to throw in any trash. So I said I would be up in a couple of hours as we were already into a bat job and didnt want to leave yet.

Shortly I ran back to my shop and picked up two transfer cages and one safeguard coon size trap. I always carry a trap and a transfer cage during the day just in case. But we had loaded for bat work that day and had unloaded most of our trapping and snare poles earlier.

I left the bat job to be finished by my primary tech and went to pick up the 4 coon in the dumpster.As I pulled up to the rear of BK I opened the tailgate and pulled out my transfer cages and one trap and a snare pole.

I opened the gated door of the dumpster and entered the enclosed area of the two dumpsters.The dumpster on the left had two sliding doors, one door being on either side about waist height.

I peered into the one sliding door opening and was taken back at what I saw. Around the entire back wall and inside perimeter of half of this dumpster was one big continuous row and literally piles of coon all running and trying to hide from this human invader.This dumpster I would say was 10'x 10'and about 8' in height.

I was about dumb founded as to the number of coon that I saw.I began an attempt to do a body count to get an idea of what I was going to be able to do with all of these coon since I only had 2- 12"x12"x24" transfer cages and one pro model safeguard 11"x12"x30" trap with a slide rear door.I figured there was at least 20 coon as a rough educated count.

Turned out to be 17 startled ,mad and scared coon in total but lets not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

I realized I couldnt reach far enough into the dumpster to snare the coon,so I decided to jump into the dumpster and had at it. I yelled as I jumped in and thought may the best animal win. Boy o Boy had there been someone able to video tape that fiasco it would have been a block buster video.

Just me, my snare pole and those 2 transfer cages and one trap. Kind of like the shoot out at the OK corral. Me, myself and I, armed and ready to take them all on.There isnt any rattle snake round up that could compare to what I went through.

The bell rang and off I went into the furry maze of moving, running and snarling stack of coons. I must have been nuts to jump into that mess with garbage,unstable footing, grease, french fries and gosh knows what else I was knee high in. had shorts on to boot.

It was 96 degrees and the highest humidity of the year. I was sweating like I was in the Amazon rain forest. As there was no air movement in that dumpster except for the air pushed around by the scattering coon and me waving that snare pole like a professional tuna fisherman hooking and throwing each caught fish into a holding container. There was coon ?issing going on like nobodies business.

With some "frail" thought of a game plan I set the cage trap along the wall under the sliding door to head off a couple of running coon to take the pressure off a little, at least that was the plan. Little did I realize I just made a step for them to jump up on and try to climb and jump out of that dumpster.

Ever seen 17 coon make a mad run for a door 3 feet up a wall and take a spring board dive up into the air to what they believe was to safety. I have.... LOL

With gloved hands I began grabbing coons by the scruf of the neck grabbing any body part I could hold onto to throw them away from that opening as fast as I could and as fast as they jumped up to the open doorway. Remember now there were 2 open exit door ways 10 feet or so apart.

So I was going back and forth for a time until it dawned on me "dah" that I needed to move those transfer cages away from the door way so they couldnt use them to climb upon.

See you can teach an old dog new tricks once in a while.LOL I dont need a bunch of coon to fall on my head to understand I made a serious error in judgement with putting those cages where I did.

Realizing I had made a terrible mistake setting those cages directly under that sliding door opening I re thought my plan. So I re grouped for a brief moment as all professionals do when faced with such a dilemma right?? LOL

I moved the set cage trap to a better position in the dumpster as my last idea was a real dumb move on my part. So I re set the trap as the mad rush and the pounding that cage trap took from all those coon running and jumping for freedom had fired the trap.

I was a madman at work and I was intensely focused so as not to loose track of any animals and hadnt realized I had developed an audience of 6 people. Before I was done there were most of burger kings employees watching me and some customers that came over to see what some thought was a street fight going on.

I was like a man possessed and focused on his job.These people had gone unnoticed by me for around 45 minutes time before the smoke had cleared and I climbed out of the coon pit from [Please excuse my language... I'm an idiot], wet from sweat and exhausted from the task at hand.

I felt like Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon."Bring it on boys". It had been such a boring week so far. What a way to bring a man back to life once again. Who says ADC work cant be challenging and exciting. I have caught and handled thousands of fox and coyote alive in my day but I never had to wrestle that many at one time simultaneously.

I must say "that" day will remain engrained in my mind for many years.My guys said I was crazy to jump in that dumpster with all those coon like I did. Being I have handled so many animals in my days I had no fear. With a little after thought I probably didnt exercise alot of good sense at the time but it all worked out well.

I kind of felt like Tarzan for a moment in time. Some of the old timers most likely watched Tarzan in their younger days like I did.

Oh well, now it was just another day on the job and something to remember and to talk about, and I can say that "I did that one time"....... HA! What a day.....:)

Oh yes, and for the rest of the story, I hit them for $25 a head. You do the math. Not bad for less then an hours work.

Regards,

Bob Jameson

......... I'll...I'll have what he's having! Ha!

That had to be something! You didnt mention how much blood you lost. LOL

Where's the video camera when you need it?

Great day, wish I could have witnessed that.

thankfully I came out none for the worse and unscathed for the most part. I did have a very foul smell that I still seem to have embedded in my shoes and socks. I hate to throw the shoes away as they took me 3 years to break them in. You guys know how it is.

Wow, What a story! I would have loved to see that! good job!

question? did the dumpster have a top lid? I think I would have tried to slide the side door shut and get a ladder, pull them out one by one from the top, but then again, i would not have a great story like that to tell1 LOL.

......and he didn't even need Peaches and Cream! Oh, that Bob...always out doing me! Ha!

Frankly I dont know if it had a lid or not. I imagine it had one of those heavy steel type hinge lids. It was a very big unit as they go. I got a couple of pics on my camera phone but it was dark and shadowy in there and not sure if they will reproduce well. I will try and get them transferred to my pc and post a couple of the photos that are most clear.

I would love to have seen that. Good job Bob, and thanks for the story!

Hey Rodney I sure could have used your help on that one. Or anyones. Had to borrow some garbage cans with lids to slam the other load of coons into to haul them away.

I was wondering if ya hog tied them or what?

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My personal best is 4 in one trap, but I had to rent a giant cage trap and trigger it by hand when the ma ma and babies were all inside. I made it part of my handout. The whole job took about 1.5 hrs. not including drive time. I dont think I would do it that way again, but it made a good pic.

no hog tying bucksnort. Just plain old snare em, grab em and toss em in the cages or container as quickly as possible and slam the lid down fast so they dont all come jumping up and out of the containments.

I grabbed a few one with each hand by the scruff of the necks at one point.I only did 4 as I recall as I had one start to roll back over my gloves and about got me good. So I went back to snaring and jamming them into cages and trash cans.

Yea them coons can turn arround inside there skin cant they? Ive always found it to work if you use both hands and get the scruff of the neck, and above the tail, then get them legs off the ground.

Trashcan=holding pen/tranport cage. I love it.

A man has to improvise when conditions warrant such a need.:)

Thats why we do what we do.Ya gotta be quick on your feet, and do what you can with what you have.None of us would have been 100% ready for that one. Bob made due and got er done!
Did you put em down, or let em go? Id have liked to see that! 17 coons running sideways.

Lets just say I am a firm believer in job security and I would like to think of myself as a conservationist.The moment kind of reminded me of when you would turn the lights on in a skid row apartment and the roaches go a running for cover.:)