By SKYE SEIPP
@seippetc

During the lunch rush on Sept. 9, a raccoon fell through the ceiling in the corner of the Mama DeLuca’s and Subway.

A photo of the clumsy critter went viral on the Instagram page “TexasLatinoMedia-uncensored.”

“We didn’t know anything about the raccoons” on campus, Subway owner Cyndi Pitman said. “We had a lot of people out here and the Red Sea [of people] parted.”

With a trash can and the help of an employee with a broom, Pitman trapped “Rocky,” as it was dubbed by her husband Tim Pitman, before police arrived to remove the critter.

Pitman said she doesn’t think it’s an issue that raccoons snuck their way on campus. She said with the  nearby fields and local developments, it’s just a part of the location.

Facilities director Michael Brantley said workers had caught several raccoons inside buildings during the week before Sept. 9 and believed they had caught all of the animals before “Rocky” came tumbling down.

“That one was a surprise,” Brantley said.

This is not the first time the masked-bandit critters have been found inside campus ceilings.. In March 2012, The Et Cetera reported three “renegade” raccoons being caught, which caused damage to the walls in room N-200.

Brantley said Eastfield no longer has to worry about raining raccoons, as the family of six varmints that had been recently rummaging around in the ceilings was captured and relocated to another environment.

He said it is believed they got in through the roof of the A Building, which has now been patched.

Three were caught in President Eddie Tealer’s office, and another one was found running through the halls.

The mother and another baby were found in the C Building and he said no damage was done to the college.

“They don’t tear anything up,” he said. “They don’t want you to know that they’re there.”

He said facilities used traps baited with cat food to capture the critters and then called the city of Mesquite to relocate them together in a different habitat.

“They don’t really act like wild animals at that point, they just seem to be cool and ready to get on their way,” Brantley said. “So we just try to get them on their way.”

https://eastfieldnews.com/2019/09/25/15611/