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‘Posse of bandits.’ Father, son encounter 14 raccoons at Golden Gate Park, video shows

A boy stopped beside his scooter gazes in disbelief as 14 raccoons emerge from the brush, one after the other, along a Golden Gate Park trail in downtown San Francisco, a video shows.

“It was so surreal … a posse of bandits … like out of a movie,” said Marc Estoque, reported The San Francisco Chronicle. “And then two minutes later there was a coyote. I was waiting for the unicorn to pop out.”

Estoque shot the video of his son, Ever, and the raccoons while walking with their dog, Zeus, in the park, KNTV reported.

The raccoons were likely looking for treats in the Sept. 17 encounter, but Marc and Ever didn’t feed them, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“We want to keep the animals wild,” Marc said, according to the publication.

That’s the right idea, said Matthew Schweitzer, a San Francisco City College professor who specializes in urban wildlife issues, KNTV reported. Animals that become accustomed to handouts can become aggressive about demanding food.

The Estoques aren’t alone in reporting close encounters with raccoons at that park.

Heather Buren says a mob of raccoons recently hissed and lunged at her as she walked her dog, KPIX reported.

“I was yelling at them, they were not backing down,” Buren said, according to the station. Several others also reported daytime encounters with aggressive raccoons.

Virginia Donohue, executive director of San Francisco Animal Care and Control, says people who feed wildlife are to blame, KPIX reported.

“People think they’re helping the raccoon,” Donohue said, according to the station. “They feed the raccoon, but if the raccoon gets to be too aggressive, eventually the parks will have to trap them, and once they’re trapped they have to be euthanized because you can’t relocate them.”