'Heads Up': Northborough Officials Free Fox From Storm Grate

NORTHBOROUGH, MA — One not-so-sly fox found himself in a tricky situation on Thursday, with his head caught in a storm grate. He was freed by a team of Northborough firefighters, police and a DPW worker. But they all had one question — how did he get caught in there in the first place?

The fox was stuck with it's head sticking out of the grate toward the street and his body underneath on the other side. Northborough police officers on patrol around West Main Street happened to see the little guy and called the fire department for help.

Jamie Desautels is a shift captain in the fire department and responded to the call. He laughed while thinking about what he saw, "I can't figure out how he got his head into that small grate, it must've hurt," he said, "Maybe he wandered in through a storm drain or something."

Desautels said the fox had a trio of first responders at his aid with three members of the fire department, one police officer and one DPW worker all working to get him out. The grate was cast iron and two inches thick, so cutting it was not an option and the crew didn't want to risk hurting the fox.

"We had to break it to get him out — it took about 45 minutes," Desautels said.

While the workers tried to break the grate, they had to hold the little fox to keep him from squirming and getting hurt. Once he was freed, he ran into the woods, head first.

Desautels said he's dealt with animal rescues before, but none like this. "I've done the cat stuck in the tree, raccoons in the dumpster, animals in water," he laughed, "But never a fox out of a storm grate — hope he's okay."