Contents
show
When Jason Wagar saw this poor, unfortunate dead raccoon on the sidewalk near a bus stop in Toronto, he notified the city via its 311 Toronto Service Twitter account. It was 9 AM and he was expecting a quick response.
As anticipated, staff responded within a few minutes. At this point, no one could have guessed what would unfold.
By this time, someone had written a brief message to the raccoon on a Post-It note.
Nearly six hours later, Jason checked again, only to find that not only was the raccoon still there, but that someone had started a makeshift shrine to it. He reminded 311 Toronto about the situation.
Shortly after, Toronto city councilor Norm Kelly also tweeted 311 Toronto about the animal. Passers-by began leaving more notes, and someone coined the hashtag #deadraccoonto. Things were officially getting weird.
Toronto teacher Shauna Pollock posted her own picture of the critter, and was seemingly perplexed by the whole affair.
As the afternoon wore on, the shrine continued grow.
Councilman Kelly put a bit of his dark humor on display with a photo-shopped shot.
As early evening fell, Shauna Pollock couldn’t understand why the raccoon was still there.
After dark, Councilman Kelly posted that the shrine had turned into a candlelight vigil.
The staff at 311 Toronto were NOT amused as someone lit a religious candle at the site.
A prankster placed a joint in the raccoon’s paw.
Finally, at around 11 PM, city staff arrived to dispose of the body.
By this point, someone had started a Twitter account pretending to be the raccoon, who thanked the city staffers for picking him up.
Even after the raccoon was taken away, residents continued lighting candles.
More more images of the raccoon’s shrine, visit the Twitter hashtag #DeadRacoonTO.