Watch: Raccoon Rescued From Car Engine In Bradenton Beach

BRADENTON BEACH, FL — A lucky raccoon was recently released back into the wild after getting stuck in a car engine on Bradenton Beach, Wildlife, Inc. shared to its social media pages Thursday.

The animal rehabilitation and rescue organization was initially called to the Bridge Street Hotel on Jan. 13 when the raccoon was spotted on the third floor. A volunteer from the group showed up to look into the situation, finding a fully grown raccoon that seemed healthy, other than having a slight limp.

The raccoon didn’t make it an easy rescue, though, Wildlife, Inc. shared. It squeezed through a gap in a railing and “scurried down the stairs to the ground floor confused, scared and potentially injured.”

Once the critter made its way to the hotel’s ground floor, it darted under cars parked nearby. Working with hotel staff, the volunteer tried to get it into the cage.

By then, the raccoon had made its way into the engine of a 2013 Nissan Sentra, the organization said. The car’s owner, Raquel Rangel, arrived around this time and joined the rescue efforts.

“After several hours of trying to coax the raccoon out from the engine block through the utmost humane means, the raccoon proved to be stuck with no way to go forward and unable to turn around in the tight spot to leave the way it arrived,” Wildlife, Inc. said.

At this point, Gail Straight, president of the organization, reached out to Dr. Bill Bystrom with Island Animal Clinic for help.

Once he determined the raccoon couldn’t get out of the engine on its own, he gave the animal a sedative and Straight was able to remove it from the engine block.

After spending several days with Wildlife, Inc. to recover, the raccoon was safely released.

Watch the rescue here: