A raccoon broke into a Bronx beauty shop Saturday and ran rings around the cops who coax it into a cage and zap it with a tranquilizer gun.
The bushy-tailed bandit “was up in the ceiling,” said Cho Oh, 72. who works at Genesis Beauty Supply in Wakefield.
“It looked like a big cat.”
When Oh opened the shop at 8:30 a.m., she noticed that chunks of ceiling and wigs were on the ground.
Then she looked up, saw the crafty critter and dialed 911.
Four cops, armed with a trap lined with marshmallows and a tranquilizer guns, showed up.
One officer fired into “Lil Rocky’s’’ back, but the tranquilizer fluid didn’t leave the dart.
Another cop, wielding a catch pole, tried to nab the furry menace but slipped and tumbled into one of his colleagues.
Cops finally wrestled it into the cage. But the door malfunctioned, and “Rocky’’ scampered down an aisle to the front windows, where delighted passers-by gathered to watch the show.
The raccoon finally was snared by the catch pole and pushed back into the cage. This time, the cops managed to lock the door with zip ties.
“Rocky’s’’ fate was not clear. An official with Animal Care and Control said renegade raccoons are typically euthanized so that their brains can be tested for rabies.
Additional reporting by J.C. Rice and Aaron Feis