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Queens Library Raccoon Who Took Shelter During Sandy Won't Leave

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | November 14, 2012 7:13am

QUEENS — He's a real bookworm.

The raccoon that took shelter at a Queens library during Hurricane Sandy still hasn't left — and now library officials are trying to get rid of him.

The varmint, which has been holing up in the atrium of the Queens Library at Baisley Park in South Jamaica, has become a favorite among the library's young visitors, who nicknamed him "Mr. Rocky Books," built him a cardboard-box home, and have been reading him books through a window separating the library from the atrium.

But library officials said the raccoon, which is a wild animal, cannot stay.

The atrium, a small glass-enclosed garden in the middle of the library building, is accessible to staff members, who have been refilling the raccoon’s food and water containers.

Last week, the library called in an expert who set up a trap in the atrium so that the animal could be safely removed and released to the wild.

“But so far, the raccoon hasn't tripped it,” said Joanne King, communications director for the Queens Library system, referring to the trap.

No one knows how the raccoon got into the atrium. Neighborhood volunteers discovered the animal hiding under a shrub when they came to clean up after the storm.