Baby raccoons rescued from inside Long Branch library wall

LONG BRANCH - Trapped behind drywall and steel, four baby raccoons born inside the Long Branch Public Library seemed destined to die there as well.

But city personnel banded together to first locate and then free the raccoon kits and eventually reunite them with their mother on Friday. It was no simple task.

"We don't always have a happy ending," said Debbie Nagel, animal control supervisor for the city. "But everybody came together and this one worked out."

Watch the video above to see the rescue and the raccoon family reunited at the Monmouth County SPCA.

Library staff first noticed a peculiar noise emanating from the ceiling at the library on Thursday. Nagel responded and determined there was a raccoon family up there.

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The mother, who would have fought viciously to protect her young, had to be trapped first. She was on Friday morning, leaving the simple task of retrieving the kits from panels above.

Not so fast. The mother — perhaps spooked by all the commotion on Thursday — hid her kits somewhere else. It was not immediately apparent where and the clock was ticking.

Dwayne Dentz, a maintenance supervisor at the library, heard a chirping coming from behind a wall near a first-floor elevator.

The kits had been located but now a new challenge emerged: How to access them.

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Library staff reviewed blueprints of the wall near the elevator shaft and called on the city's Public Works Department for an assist. They cut through drywall, brick and even steel to reach the raccoons, which were freed by lunchtime.

"Their eyes were just starting to crack open," said Nagel, who guessed the raccoons to be about 10 days old. "They couldn’t really see."

The raccoons — mother and young — all appeared to be healthy on Friday, according to Ross Licitra, executive director of the Monmouth County SPCA.

Once they are given a clean bill of health, they will be transferred to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator who will get them in tip-top shape before sending them on their way.

“They’ll be leaving the facility and going into foster care," said Ross Lecitra, executive director of the Monmouth County SPCA. "When everything is all copacetic, then they’ll release them back into the wild.”

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Russ Zimmer: 732-557-5748, razimmer@app.com, @russzimmer