Two ‘masked bandits’ raid California bank, and they didn’t want money, officials say

Maddie Capron
·1 min read

A man using an ATM early Tuesday morning saw masked intruders in a bank, but they weren’t robbers.

Two young raccoons were found running around inside the Redwood City bank that was closed to the public at the time, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA said in a news release.

“It’s not every day an animal organization gets called to deal with a bank break in, but since the bank robbers were masked bandits of the wildlife kind, we were indeed the appropriate responders,” PHS/SPCA’s Communications Manager Buffy Martin Tarbox said in the news release.

A man using an ATM saw a “stuffed animal” move inside a bank that turned out to be two raccoons that broke in, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA said.
A man using an ATM saw a “stuffed animal” move inside a bank that turned out to be two raccoons that broke in, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA said.

The bank’s managers let the humane society’s officials inside the bank, and they spent more than 10 minutes chasing the raccoons around the building, Tarbox said in the news release.

“They apparently didn’t want to leave the bank,” Tarbox said.

The man who reported the raccoons thought he was seeing a stuffed animal on the desk, but then saw it move. He realized it was a live raccoon.

A man using an ATM saw a “stuffed animal” move inside a bank that turned out to be two raccoons that broke in, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA said.
A man using an ATM saw a “stuffed animal” move inside a bank that turned out to be two raccoons that broke in, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA said.

The officials found muddy pawprints on the tree outside the bank, and think the raccoons climbed up the tree and crawled through the air ducts to get into the bank, Tarbox said.

“There were several broken ceiling tiles, and the masked bandits knocked papers around and even a computer over,” Tarbox said. “Thankfully the raccoons were not injured during their morning escapade, and to our knowledge they didn’t abscond with any money.”