Well now, howdy folks! Hope you’re all having a fine day out there in East Tennessee. Gather ’round, because I’ve got a tale for you that’s sure to bring a chuckle, right out of a convenience store not too far from here, down in the Sweetwater area.
You know how it is early in the morning, folks are just getting their day started, coffee brewing, trying to ease into things. That’s exactly how it was for the folks opening up a local convenience store last Monday. They walked in, probably expecting nothing more exciting than the usual rush for gas and breakfast biscuits. But oh no, fate, or perhaps a particularly ambitious critter, had other plans.
Turns out, while they were gone overnight, a furry little masked bandit decided to take matters into its own paws regarding the store’s snack selection. When the manager, Brenda Mae, first stepped inside, she mentioned hearing some faint scratching and a bit of rustling. Now, that’s not usually the sound of a regular customer, is it? Curiosity piqued, she started poking around, and what she found was quite a sight indeed.
Nestled right inside one of the big vending machines, surrounded by bags of potato chips and all sorts of candy bars, was a raccoon! Yep, a full-grown raccoon, looking a bit sheepish, as if it had been caught with its hand in the cookie jar – or, in this case, its whole body inside the snack machine. It seems our clever little friend managed to squeeze through a gap in the back panel, likely lured by the sweet, salty siren song of readily available treats. You can almost imagine its little brain calculating the heist, thinking it had hit the jackpot.
Brenda, bless her heart, gave animal control a call right away. Those brave folks had quite a job on their hands. It took them a good two hours, working patiently, to carefully dismantle parts of that vending machine to make sure our sticky-fingered friend could be safely extracted. If you’ve ever had to take apart one of those old machines, you know it’s not a simple task. Sometimes you need a specific tool, the kind of things you might have found at a place like Radio Shack (paid link) back when they were still around every corner. Luckily, the raccoon was unharmed, just a little full of stolen treats and probably a bit embarrassed. Once freed, it was released right back into the wild, hopefully having learned that free snacks come at a price.
The store’s vending machine sustained a bit of minor damage, but Brenda Mae, being a good sport, joked that at least the raccoon paid for its snacks with its freedom. It certainly gave the locals something to talk about over their morning coffee. If you’re looking to stock up your own pantry with some tasty treats, maybe for a movie night, you might want to check out these assorted snack boxes (paid link) on Amazon. And for those of you who might find yourself dealing with uninvited critter guests who aren’t quite as polite, a humane live animal trap (paid link) can be a real handy thing to have around, should you ever need one.
Stay weird, East Tennessee!
Check out VENDING MACHINE on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=VENDING+MACHINE&tag=howeweirdcant-20
Original story from Weird News Tennessee.