[imagesource:junkee]

Okay, after the whole child-dangling incident over in France, we didn’t think something similar would happen so soon.

In this case, though, it was a raccoon doing the dangling.

The daredevil, dubbed the #MPRraccoon after the radio station opposite the building, has become a viral hit after scaling a 23-storey skyscraper in St Paul, Minnesotta, early on Wednesday morning.

Evan Frost and Tim Nelson, journalists with MPR, have been documenting their station’s new mascot’s climb up the UBS Tower on Twitter, reports the BBC. Frost said:

One of my colleagues spotted the raccoon on, kind of the ground floor, sitting on a ledge on Monday – it looked like a brown lump, almost like a cat sitting there

We went out there at about 8:30AM on Tuesday morning and saw it was a raccoon. Two workers in the building got out a couple of long planks – sort of making a kind of ladder for it.

But that rescue plan was a fail, and it ended up with our raccoon friend climbing upwards.

It spent much of Tuesday going up and down the building’s floors, occasionally napping on ledges.

Soon, Frost and Nelson’s Twitter reports spread over social media, and soon anxious crowds gathered at the building on Tuesday night as they watched the critter trying its darndest to climb down.

Poor bugger.

Meanwhile, the little guy literally became an overnight hit with the Twitterverse, being hailed as a hero and a source of inspiration, per a report by StarTribune:

By late Tuesday afternoon, the raccoon became the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter and the nocturnal creature had at least three Twitter accounts in its name attracting hundreds of followers.

Users online have made fan-art and even toys of the animal.

No really, you can’t make this stuff up:

Sweet, but what about our raccoon hero?

You can breathe easy:

[On Wednesday morning] the critter stopped for a nap just two stories below the UBS Tower roof, then headed back down around 2:30AM before going to the top, where animal control officials had set up traps with food in hopes of luring him in and ensuring a safe and happy ending.

The beloved raccoon remains a free and safe critter this morning, as far as we all know.

Phew, praise the lord!

You’re now officially an internet legend, #MPRraccoon. We’ll never forget you.

[sources:bbc&startribune]