Raccoons attack Florida woman
Dan Liftman
October 08, 2009
A 74-year-old woman who was attacked by raccoons when she tried to shoo them away from her central Florida home was hospitalized for more than two days, authorities said Monday. Mildred Sharpley, of Lakeland, was in stable condition late today.
Sharpley told a reporter from the Lakeland Ledger that, when she saw a family of raccoons eating from her garbage cans, she tried to shoo them away with a broom. Angered, the animals charged her. She managed to get back inside her home, but the battle was only just beginning.
Sharpley soon came out again and fired at the raccoons with her late husband´s army issued M-16 rifle. She missed and, to her great surprise, the largest raccoon in the group pulled out an AK-47 and fired back. Although wounded in her arms and legs, Sharpley was more determined than ever to drive off the ringtails. She said she "went to my husband´s old army trunk" and dug out a hand grenade, which she had been saving "in case Obama and his socialists ever try to take over Florida."
Sharpley lobbed the grenade at the coons, but they were undaunted and hit back with a Molotov cocktail before resuming their feast. Sharpley, whom one neighbor called "a tough old broad," quickly put out the small fire the homemade bomb started in her kitchen and decided she´d "had enough." She then went to her garage and rolled out a war surplus Howitzer, which she fired at the raccoons.
Sharpley´s home backs up to a canal, so, when the shell she fired missed its targets, it landed harmlessly in the water. The raccoons scattered, though, and, thinking she had won, Sharpley sat down in her living room to relax. She could not have foreseen what happened next, though. With a loud crash, a Chevy Suburban with a raccoon at the wheel came through the living room wall, wrecking all her furniture and stopping within inches of the elderly woman.
The raccoon took off and Sheriff´s Deputy Sam Marshall, called to the scene, confirmed that the Suburban had been stolen from a home in nearby Brookhaven. Marshall said that his office had received several reports of a "raccoon street gang" in the area. One came from a local convenience store owner who claimed the coons had held him up with a submachine gun, he said, but he "would not have believed this" if he hadn´t seen "coon tracks on the driver´s seat." Surveying the destruction inside Sharpley´s home, Marshall said, "We haven't gone after the coons so far, because of concerns about protests from the animal rights people." Now, though, he plans to ask Sheriff Tom Willis for additional patrols in Sharpley´s neighborhood "to try to catch these guys and put a stop to their reign of terror." He added, "if we catch the ones who pulled the convenience store job, we'll charge them with wearing a mask during the commission of a felony."
For Sharpley´s part, she plans to leave Lakeland and move in with her son and daughter-in-law in Colorado. "They have mountain lions," she said, "but my son said they´re law abiding critters. Anyway, I know I can handle one of those."
Sharpley told a reporter from the Lakeland Ledger that, when she saw a family of raccoons eating from her garbage cans, she tried to shoo them away with a broom. Angered, the animals charged her. She managed to get back inside her home, but the battle was only just beginning.
Sharpley soon came out again and fired at the raccoons with her late husband´s army issued M-16 rifle. She missed and, to her great surprise, the largest raccoon in the group pulled out an AK-47 and fired back. Although wounded in her arms and legs, Sharpley was more determined than ever to drive off the ringtails. She said she "went to my husband´s old army trunk" and dug out a hand grenade, which she had been saving "in case Obama and his socialists ever try to take over Florida."
Sharpley lobbed the grenade at the coons, but they were undaunted and hit back with a Molotov cocktail before resuming their feast. Sharpley, whom one neighbor called "a tough old broad," quickly put out the small fire the homemade bomb started in her kitchen and decided she´d "had enough." She then went to her garage and rolled out a war surplus Howitzer, which she fired at the raccoons.
Sharpley´s home backs up to a canal, so, when the shell she fired missed its targets, it landed harmlessly in the water. The raccoons scattered, though, and, thinking she had won, Sharpley sat down in her living room to relax. She could not have foreseen what happened next, though. With a loud crash, a Chevy Suburban with a raccoon at the wheel came through the living room wall, wrecking all her furniture and stopping within inches of the elderly woman.
The raccoon took off and Sheriff´s Deputy Sam Marshall, called to the scene, confirmed that the Suburban had been stolen from a home in nearby Brookhaven. Marshall said that his office had received several reports of a "raccoon street gang" in the area. One came from a local convenience store owner who claimed the coons had held him up with a submachine gun, he said, but he "would not have believed this" if he hadn´t seen "coon tracks on the driver´s seat." Surveying the destruction inside Sharpley´s home, Marshall said, "We haven't gone after the coons so far, because of concerns about protests from the animal rights people." Now, though, he plans to ask Sheriff Tom Willis for additional patrols in Sharpley´s neighborhood "to try to catch these guys and put a stop to their reign of terror." He added, "if we catch the ones who pulled the convenience store job, we'll charge them with wearing a mask during the commission of a felony."
For Sharpley´s part, she plans to leave Lakeland and move in with her son and daughter-in-law in Colorado. "They have mountain lions," she said, "but my son said they´re law abiding critters. Anyway, I know I can handle one of those."
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