A drunk raccoon’s liquor store bender has raised $290K — and it’s helping pay for body cameras at the shelter that sobered him up

The raccoon’s caper went viral, was the subject of a sketch on Saturday Night Live, and ended up raising tens of thousands of dollars for the local animal protection agency.

The raccoon wasn’t harmed by its bender either, so it seems that this was a very rare event indeed — a hangover with a happy ending.

A raccoon and a break-and-enter

According to a report from the Washington Post, the mayhem began on a Friday night last November, when the raccoon managed to squeeze through the ceiling of an ABC store in Ashland, Virginia after it had closed.

Carol Mawyer, a Virginia ABC spokesperson, told the Post that the furry intruder set off a motion sensor, which led the security company to notify the store manager, but since there were no humans detected in the store, the manager didn’t check the store until it was time to open in the morning.

Mawyer told the Post that the raccoon did about $250 in damage, smashing 14 bottles of liquor in the storage room: rum, scotch, moonshine, Canadian whiskey, vodka, peanut butter whiskey and eggnog.

In security footage, Mawyer told the Post the raccoon could be seen “having a ball” as it scampered through the aisles.

But like most wild nights, when morning came, the fun was decidedly over. The manager found the raccoon lying flat on its belly, next to the toilet in the employee bathroom.

That’s when Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter (APS) came on the scene.

The responding animal protection officer “safely secured [the] masked bandit and transported him back to the shelter to sober up before questioning,” according to a social media post from the agency.

“After a few hours of sleep and zero signs of injury (other than maybe a hangover and poor life choices), he was safely released back to the wild, hopefully having learned that breaking and entering is not the answer,” the post read.

‘Trashed Panda’ is a sensation

Since that fateful night, the raccoon has become something of a mascot, with Hanover County APS making the savvy move to turn the international attention into a chance to do some fundraising.

The agency enlisted an apparel company to produce merch, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, mugs and stickers, with illustrated images of the passed-out raccoon in his now-famous pose, accompanied by his moniker, “Trashed Panda.”

The Hanover County APS has raised more than $290,000 in the year since the break-in; they’ve even made special one-year anniversary merch to mark the occasion.

Jeffrey Parker, Hanover County’s Chief of Animal Protection, told the Washington Post that, prior to the raccoon’s bender, the agency’s annual donations were less than $20,000.

With the newfound cash, the agency decided to purchase body cameras for its eight animal protection officers, Parker told the Post.

He said that the cameras would allow officers to capture evidence for animal abuse investigations and court proceedings.

According to the report, “dozens of Hanover County residents supported the body cameras, according to a document presented by county officials last month.”