Guess Which Airline Just Had A Raccoon Fall Out Of The Ceiling At The Gate (You’re Right; It Was Spirit)

Going to the airport can be a stressful experience, even when rodents aren't tumbling through the drop ceiling.

There's nothing worse than getting to the gate and being told that you need to gate check your bag because it's a fraction of an inch too big (I've flown enough budget airlines to know how that con works). At least, I thought there was nothing worse until I saw the video of a raccoon busting through the ceiling at a Spirit Airlines gate at New York's LaGuardia Airport.

The incident happened on November 4 at around 8 am, and fortunately, someone had had enough terminal coffee to remember to get the action on video.

I would love to be a fly on the wall when this video started making the rounds at Spirit. They've already got a bit of a reputation for riff-raff and now this. 

"I mean, I'm happy that for once it wasn't a fight, but dammit, we can't catch a break..."

I mean, that raccoon could have just as easily tumbled out of the ceiling down at the Emirates or Air Lingus gates (hehe… "Lingus"), but nope; Spirit.

Fortunately, no one — the raccoon included — was hurt. That's good because raccoons can have a real mean streak to them. Remember recently, like 100 of them took over some lady's house in Washington? 

We talked about raccoons in The Gripe Report a while back, and I've got to say, if there's one animal we should watch out for it's them, what with those little hands of theirs.

I mean, one minute they're digging through your trash, the next they're bypassing TSA and rappelling through ceilings like it's Mission Impossible.

USA Today reports that the offending raccoon was captured and released outside, and hasn't been seen again as of Wednesday afternoon, which I'd argue is exactly what it wants. It doesn't want people to be able to say, "Hey I saw that Spirit Airlines ceiling raccoon by the side of the road cleaning himself."

Nope, that thing wants to be a ghost.