Virginia

Raccoons Attack Another Resident in Arlington Neighborhood

Raccoons have attacked and bitten a man in an Arlington, Virginia, neighborhood just days after a woman was attacked in the same area.

Greg Purcell, who lives in the Fairlington neighborhood, said he was walking out of his front door early Wednesday morning when two raccoons leaped onto his legs.

"I was stepping out onto my porch to put on sun lotion spray and was just looking at the bottle of spray when all of a sudden the raccoons were, two of them, were chomping on my leg and scratching and clawing me and basically I was kind of stunned and saying, 'What's going on?'" Purcell told News4. 

"I didn't really know what it was at first but I just knew something was biting me and clawing at me," he said.

One of Purcell's neighbors was walking by during the attack. He also didn't know what was happening at first.

"He was kind of like kicking around at the ground and as we got closer...I could see like some little silouhettes of raccoons running around his feet," Mark Wjciechowski said.

Purcell said he managed to get back in the house and shut the door so that the raccoons couldn't get inside. He then had to trade in golfing for a trip to the hospital to get rabies shots.

A resident had 87 stitches last week after she was attacked by a raccoon, according to the neighborhood's Facebook group. Another resident took photos of a raccoon using a doggy door.

The Facebook group said the Arlington Animal Welfare League will not help with removing the raccoons, because the problem is related to the neighborhood's trash rules. The homeowners’ association does not allow trash bins outside, only bags, which some said attracts the critters.

Purcell also suspects the issue has to do with some residents leaving trash on their stoops.

"It is certainly a problem and there's a lot of folks in the community that are sort of fearful right now," Wjciechowski said.

Animal Control suggested using wooden closed trash cans that can be picked up daily. Residents are forming an ad-hoc committee to study this solution.

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