The only way this story could be more Canadian is if it involved a beaver.
Two weeks ago, a Manitoba Mountie threw on a hazmat suit and removed a Tim Hortons cup that was stuck on a skunk’s head.
“He said, ‘If I’m going to be the one in charge of removing the cup, there is no way I’m going there without protective gear,’” Sgt. Bert Paquet, a spokesperson with the Manitoba RCMP, told CBC News. “Obviously he’s the one exposed to the stinky risk of the whole operation.”
The officers found the skunk in the early morning hours, while on their way home from a shift in the small village of Winnipegosis. The animal appeared weak, and they knew they couldn’t drive away without doing something.
They described their rescue plan as a “high-risk ‘tarp and trap’ maneuver,” which involved the geared-up officer moving in, while the other covered the skunk with a yellow tarp.
They waited for the skunk to poke its head out before attempting to pull the cup off. It took them two tries, but when it popped off, the Mounties bolted in opposite directions, afraid of getting hit by the animal’s pungent spray.
“Go, go, go, go, go,” the person holding the camera said nervously.
Once the other two realized what they’d done—and without getting sprayed—they began shouting with excitement.
“We did it! We saved a skunk!” one of them yelled.
“We saved its life,” the other said, as the skunk slowly hobbled away.
Working in law enforcement, you come to expect the unexpected, but it’s pretty clear from the officers’ reactions that they’ve never done anything like this before.
“I think the guys were high-fiving each other all the way to the office [the next day],” Paquet told CBC.
