After a
nice evening listening to some light Jazz and getting a few things
accomplished, I took dog out for her midnight potty in anticipation of winding
down for bed. Normally I just let
dog out the door since she knows the routine and goes straight to the back of
the rig to potty & returns for bed.
For whatever reason, this time I felt like I should put her on a leash
and go out with her. Something
immediately caught her attention under the rig but I pulled her away and told
her to hurry up. She obeyed & we
went in. I turned out the outside light,
closed the shade and walked over to close my computer and then heard a strange
noise. I attributed it to a wind burst
that must have blown something around outside.
Then I heard something again.
This time Dog got up and headed to the door .. as did I. It sounded like someone was tampering with
my rig!!! I am thinking WTH, I still
have my lights on & was just outside two minutes ago, who could be so bold
or stupid as to pick a rig to rob where the people were up!!? I flipped on the light & opened the
shade & simultaneously heard
a loud thud in the cargo bay to the left of my door. I didn’t see anyone out there so I started to
open the door only to find a grey body and striped tail on my top step!! I shut the door quickly & continue to
hear loud noises. Again I am thinking,
or I may have been even talking out loud at this point, “WTH!!??”
So what do you do when masked bandits are tearing
into your cargo bay?? I tried to call
the office at the County park I am staying at, but no answer and no referral
for after hours emergencies. There continues to be loud banging in my bay and
dog is going nuts, wanting to get out the door.
I try opening door a little & slamming it to scare it away. Its still there … I call 911, I explain to him my rig is being
broken into by raccoons and that there is even one manning the step! Being a professional he doesn’t laugh or hang
up on me, but instead says he will send a car.
Eventually, the big clunking noises stop and I
watch as a huge raccoon takes a drink out of my dogs dish outside of the
door. I only see one raccoon now, so I
decide that I should sneak out my rigs driver-side door and try and shoo the
bandit away. It goes under the rig when
it sees me. I reach down & grab some
seashells to throw (yes, seashells, this is Florida there aren’t rocks here just sand and seashells)! It kind of plays
chicken with me under the rig, until I actually hit it with a seashell. I kind of felt bad when I hit it because I
heard the thud and it paused and kind of looked at me like “Really? That hurt”. Eventually I got it out from under the
rig. It headed for my water hose, where
it stopped a took a drink out of a water leak (washing down its dog food buffet?) before trotting off towards the
woods after one of my seashells actually got close to it again.
With it gone, I went to open up the cargo door and
check out the damage. That is where
Dog’s food is kept in a plastic bin, so I knew that was what it was after. As I opened the cargo door, I was shocked to
see 4 pair of eyes looking back at me!!!
In fact I was so shocked, I might have even let out one of those ‘little
girl screams’ .. though quietly, as it was quiet hours! This time I had no “WTH”, I was just
speechless. After all in 10 years of
full-time RVing, I have never had 1 raccoon in a cargo bay much less 4! Hello! Four, LIVE, WILD animals IN my cargo bay! They happily munched away on dog food and didn’t
mind me at all! Finally the park
security guy shows up. He has a
flashlight & shines it on the bandits.
They don’t move. I ask him what
he is gonna do to get them out!?? He
just smiles and shakes his head … he had nothing.. ! Grrreattt!!
As we backed up a little bit, one of the bandits starts to head down the
tire cover that they have draped down out of the bay like a curtain. Two more follow, but one is pretty darn happy
munching on the dog food buffet.
Eventually, it leaves too. I
send the dog food with the security guy.
We decides that I shouldn’t lock the bay as they may come back and just
try and tear it open. I wind down and
get to bed about 2 am. At 2:30 am they come
back and I chase them away and decide to go ahead and lock the bin now that
they had a chance to see the food was gone.
They come back again at 5:30 am., this time they leave quickly and
finally get a bit of shut eye. Tonight
the dog’s food will be locked in the car; hopefully it is a less eventful
night! Note: as I publish this .. they are back!! sigh
