Raccoon tries to catch the subway at Spadina station

Masked bandit is second 'downtown freeloader' to hop a train in 2 months

Image | raccoon on spadina subway

Caption: The raccoon 'minds the gap' as it leaves the subway at Spadina station Tuesday morning. (Carl Fernandez/Twitter)

Move over groundhogs, a Toronto raccoon just stole your day.
TTC riders spotted a raccoon trying to hop on the southbound subway at Spadina station this morning.

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No word yet on what a commuting raccoon means in terms of the changing season — but something must have scared off the masked bandit (maybe his shadow) because the raccoon decided to leave the train after causing a brief delay.

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Second 'downtown freeloader' in two months

This raccoon isn't the first to hitch a ride on the rails, back in December a "downtown freeloader" raccoon was found on board a Lakeshore West GO train headed from Union station to Aldershot in Burlington.
In that case, the raccoon did stick around for the ride.

Image | raccoon

Caption: If you spot an animal on a GO train, Metrolinx recommends notifying an employee and avoid doing an emergency pull. (Tyler Kay)

Metrolinx spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins joked that "he had an hour long nap, probably snoozed."
"Nobody checked to see if he tapped his Presto card."