Raccoon Breaks Into NYC Bank, Waits Out Snowstorm

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — A local raccoon reportedly broke into the Chase bank branch along Queens Boulevard near Jackie Robinson Parkway sometime on Monday evening, then chilled inside the bank until the worst of Winter Storm Stella had passed Tuesday afternoon.

“While we have a strict 'no mask' policy within our branches, we made an exception here because the raccoon was just seeking a little shelter from the snowstorm and was also unable to remove his mask,” said Erich Timmerman, a Chase spokesman. “Chase is dedicated to the communities we serve.”

Forest Hills resident Mark Elkaim, 50, snapped a photo of the raccoon chilling atop a cubicle wall inside the bank around 8:30 p.m. Monday:

“I was just walking into my apartment and to the right is Chase, and I saw this raccoon — that was so strange,” Elkaim told the New York Post. The raccoon seemed to be enjoying the warmth, he said, and didn't appear at all put off by his new domestic habitat.

The raccoon immediately gravitated toward the limelight, according to Elkaim. “It was making its way up the chair on the branch representative’s desk and into the window to see us,” he told the Post.

As no one was answering the phone at the bank Monday night, Elkaim said he called 311, at which point he was transferred to a 911 dispatcher — but nobody from the city came to fetch the raccoon.

The masked intruder reportedly remained inside the Chase branch (which was closed due to the storm) until 3 p.m. on Tuesday, when Steve Nelson, a trapper from Wildlife Removal Services, arrived to the scene. A photographer for the Post snapped this photo of the little guy behind bars:

The raccoon was released onto a piece of private property around 4 miles from the bank that belongs to “people who are animal lovers,” the trapper told DNAinfo.

Lead image via Google Maps