Baby raccoon freed from grate

Posted by Dispatch staff on June 27, 2012 in Featured, Great Big World, Wildlife Watch | 0 comments

A baby raccoon that got stuck head-first in a sewer grate is free thanks to the quick and slippery work of some city workers in suburban Detroit.

The Detroit Free Press reports Dearborn Heights Department of Public Works Director Bill Zimmer was in his front yard Wednesday when he noticed the critter. He called fellow Public Works employees for help. They used vegetable oil and dish soap to free the raccoon.

A release from Dearborn Heights says the crew took the raccoon to the Public Works yard for a “much-needed shower” before letting it go in the woods.

The animal was OK after the ordeal.

a young raccoon's head got stuck in a storm drain cover in Dearborn Heights, Mich. Dearborn Heights Department of Public Works employees, using some vegetable oil, liquid soap and some TLC, managed to free the critter unharmed. The crew took the raccoon to the Public Works yard for a "much-needed shower" before letting it go in the woods. (AP Photo/Dearborn Heights Department of Public Works)

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Reported by the Associated Press from DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com