When Raccoons Mistake Your Fire Escape for the Beach

According to a pamphlet from the city about getting raccoons out of your home, the “name ‘raccoon’ comes from an Indian word that means ‘he scratches with his hands.'”

This video from neighbor Naomi Donabedian, aka Cantaloupe Alone, demonstrates just how accurate that name is, as these raccoons on her fire escape gave each other some back-scratches, and were just generally hanging out, doing their raccoon thing.

The pamphlet doesn’t give any advice about how to get these bandits off your fire escape, unfortunately. Anyone have any experience with this?