UpdateAn employee of American Disposal Services wrote Atlas Obscura to say that the raccoon reached safety. “As soon as we knew he was hitchin’ a ride, the driver pulled over and made sure he was okay while we waited for Animal Control,” the employee, a training coordinator at the company, said. Long live garbage truck raccoon. Our original post is below.

This morning, Helena B. Evich, a reporter at Politico, spotted a raccoon. But not just any raccoon: one that appeared to be hanging on for dear life on the back of a garbage truck.

Computer, enhance:

That’s a raccoon who surely didn’t think it’d end up in this situation.

Evich later tweeted that she’d contacted the garbage company, who, she said, was “super responsive” and had the truck’s number. 

The raccoon itself seemed to have a good grip, later crawling farther up the truck after Evich took the photo. 

It’s unclear what ultimately happened to garbage truck raccoon, as Evich eventually lost track of the animal, agreeing with one Twitter user that she hopes garbage truck raccoon is all right. 

As do we. Stay safe out there, garbage truck raccoon.