5 Trapped Baby Raccoons Rescued From Hillsborough Attic

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — Five baby raccoons are lucky to be alive after they were trapped in a Hillsborough attic in the sweltering heat without food or water for four days when their mother died.

It was about six weeks ago when a mother raccoon broke into the Marcketta family's home on South Branch Road. The mother had bent back a vent at the peak of the roof to get into the attic with her five babies, said Elizabeth Marcketta.

"We knew they were living up there and called a few wildlife companies who told us the humane thing to do was to wait until the babies were old enough to leave with the mother," said Marcketta.

Since it was an inaccessible area of the attic it wasn't a danger to the Marcketta family. While waiting for them to leave Marcketta said she even reached out to a company to build a ramp on the side of the home for them to get out safely.

Then on Saturday morning, Marcketta said she woke up to find a raccoon dead, that had been hit by a car, in front of her home.

"It was too much of a coincidence not to be her," said Marcketta of the mama raccoon.

To be sure the family set up a motion sensor camera at the vent to see if the mother would return. She never did.

As temperatures approached 90 degrees over the weekend, Marcketta and her family worried about the babies' wellbeing.

She reached out to a few wildlife removal services but they were unable to reach the raccoons due to low ceilings in the small crawl space attic of their home. The babies were stranded.

Marcketta then reached out to Animal Control Solutions, who services Hillsborough, and spoke with Vice President Beth Engleman.

"We don't usually do this sort of thing and usually refer residents to a wildlife removal service but we had been talking for a few days and saw she was not having any luck," said Engleman. "By day four I knew we had to do something for the babies or they were going to die. They hadn't eaten in four days and were dehydrated with the 90-plus degrees over the weekend."

On Tuesday, Engleman and Animal Control Officer Jess Wolfenden went out to the home.

"After trying two different ladders we successfully got into the crawl space, located their nest across the attic and set traps. We realized the babies were moving between the attic and the soffit of the house," said Engleman.

While there John from Coastal Wildlife Removal, who was going to install the ramp for the babies, had shown up to help.

"Through an awesome team effort and help from the Marcketta's we were successful in rescuing five baby raccoons," said Engleman.

Marcketta's two children were ecstatic the babies were safe and named them.

"It was a happy ending for the babies who were named Greg, Bob, Popcorn, Rocky and John by the two kids," said Engleman. "I have been doing this for 17 years and this by far was one of the more tricky calls we have gotten."

The babies were then taken to Woodlands Wildlife Refuge to be nursed back to good health. Donations towards their care can be made to Woodlands Wildlife Refuge through woodlandswildlife.org.

Have a news tip? Email alexis.tarrazi@patch.com.

Get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our new app. Download here. Don't miss local and statewide announcements. Sign up for Patch alerts and daily newsletters.