What is it with raccoon rage in Boulder?

Plenty of people in the community have a love for urban wildlife, as witnessed by the outpouring of anger after two Boulder cops allegedly shot a neighborhood elk on New Year's Day. But back in 2011, police arrested three people on suspicion of killing a raccoon with a baseball bat and a machete. And now, Richard Moller is facing an animal cruelty beef related to the beating of two raccoons in a dumpster.

One version of the tale is told by an arrest affidavit obtained by the Boulder Daily Camera.

At around 6:45 p.m. on Monday, according to the document, police were called to 5610 Arapahoe Avenue in Boulder.

There, witnesses said a man thought to be Moller climbed into a dumpster occupied by two raccoons and began waling on them with a piece of wood festooned with nails.

The Camera notes onlookers' accounts of the raccoons "screaming and moaning" throughout the onslaught. And when one of the witnesses yelled at Moller for his actions, he's quoted as responding, "All raccoons must die."

One did; its body was found in the dumpster. The other one's fate is unknown, since it scampered away before police could grab it.

What's Moller's problem with the little bandits? During a subsequent conversation with the officers who tracked him down, Moller is said to have acknowledged to having a jones for raccoons ever since he watched members of the species kill his cat a few years back. As such, he allegedly saw the presence of the pair in the dumpster as "my opportunity to kill the raccoons."

His latest opportunities? To appear in court at 2 p.m. tomorrow in relation to a couple animal cruelty counts, and to have his image immortalized by a professional photographer at the Boulder County Jail. Here's a look at his mug shot.

More from our Colorado Crimes archive circa November 2011: "Nicholas Foti and two pals accused of killing a raccoon with a baseball bat and machete."