Stratford man surprised by raccoons in green bin

It's not what you expect to find when you open up your green bin.

Kevin Coles thought something was amiss when he heard scratching coming from inside his Waste Watch compost bin at his home in Stratford P.E.I. on Wednesday morning. When he opened the lid and looked down he saw three baby raccoons staring up at him. 

"They got in the can, they couldn't get out." 

In the past, Coles has watched the mother raccoon stand on the can's wheels and use the handles to climb up, and then use her snout to get in.

"I've watched the mother 'coon do it all the time. She just gets up on the wheel and in she goes."

He figures the cubs did something similar. But once inside there was nothing for them to grab onto to get back out. 

The babies, which Coles said were about the size of Nerf ball, looked pretty sheepish when he lifted the lid.

There was no sign of the mother. Coles said if there had been he would have been a lot more cautious getting so close to the cubs. 

Cubs marched back into woods after being freed

"I would have knocked the can over, and not be taking pictures." 

Coles gently tipped over the bin with the open lid so the little ones could get out. He said the minute they were free they marched straight back into the trees to their den in the woods behind Coles' house. 

People commenting on the Facebook post called them "trash pandas," and pests and said Coles is lucky they didn't leave a mess.  

But Coles doesn't see them as a problem. 

"I don't mind them. I think it's pretty cool that they're around," he said. 

"The compost is going to the dump. I don't feed them, but I don't tie down the cans." 

Coles said his sons get a kick out of watching for them from the window every night — kind of like nature TV but in their own backyard.

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