Weird Florida: Opossum Breaks Into Liquor Store, Drinks Bourbon

FORT WALTON BEACH, FL — An opossum apparently drank bourbon after breaking into a Florida liquor store recently. A liquor store employee found the animal next to a broken and empty bottle of bourbon. The animal sobered up at a wildlife rescue center and was released on Thursday, the Associated Press reported.

The store owner, Cash Moore, says he never had an opossum break into his store before. "She came in from the outside and was up in the rafters, and when she came through she knocked a bottle of liquor off the shelf," Moore told the Panama City News Herald. "When she got down on the floor she drank the whole damn bottle."

Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge officials say the opossum was brought in by a Fort Walton Beach police officer on Nov. 24.

"A worker there found the opossum up on a shelf next to a cracked open bottle of liquor with nothing in it," said Michelle Pettis, a technician at the refuge. "She definitely wasn’t fully acting normal."

Pettis told the News Herald the female opossum appeared disoriented, was excessively salivating and was pale. The staff pumped the marsupial full of fluids and cared for her as she sobered up.

"We loaded her up with fluids to help flush out any alcohol toxins," Pettis said. "She was good a couple of days later."

Pettis says the opossum did not appear to have a hangover.

Read the News Herald story here.

Photo via Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission