Police officers were called in to apprehend some "masked" bandits of a different kind at a Toronto home early Thursday morning.
A homeowner called police after a family of raccoons - a mother and her two cubs - invaded his house on Columbine Avenue, near Woodbine Avenue and Kingston Road.
Police said the critters got into a crawlspace in the attic, eventually made their way inside the house and began scouring for a snack.
"The mother chewed the drywall out and they all came down," the homeowner, Zak Al-Hillal, told CP24 after his house became raccoon-free again.
Al-Hillal called police after he managed to corner the raccoons as they were eating food out of a second-floor pantry.
Because police were unable to contact animal control officers, a police officer stepped into action and used a cardboard box and a broom to shoo the mother and her babies down the stairs and out the door.
The mother, first out the door, ran away but returned a short time later to retrieve her cubs, using her teeth to carry one by the scruff of its neck.
The family then scurried up a tree to safety.
Al-Hillal said he heard the raccoon family in the attic Wednesday and he planned to contact animal control officials during the day Thursday for assistance or advice on how to remove them.
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