This masked bandit didn’t come to steal – he got here to chew.
A Kentucky man often known as “Cowboy Cody” let free a terrified raccoon in a bar out of revenge for being turned away from the institution Friday night time, in keeping with police and bartender who witnessed the incident.
Police arrested Jonathan Mason, 40, on a slew of fees together with assault after he launched a raccoon into The Massive Apple Grill and Bar within the metropolis of Murray, in keeping with a police press launch.
“Apparently he had trapped a raccoon earlier within the day on his farm and he had been carrying it round with him,” a restaurant bartender, Mary Hafner, advised The Submit.
“I’m a bartender, so you understand I’ve seen some loopy stuff in my time. However nothing like this.”
Mason, dubbed “Cowboy Cody” by locals, lives alone on a close-by farm and has induced hassle up to now at native bars, staff advised The Submit.
Hafner, 37, who has labored at The Massive Apple for 5 years, stated Mason was already consuming when she encountered him Friday night time. The bar had beforehand banned him over a drunken mule incident.
Mason all the time preferred her, Hafner stated, and she or he thought she might persuade him to depart with no inflicting a scene.
“I got here out from across the bar and requested him properly to depart,” stated Hafner. “He stated to me, ‘oh I see how it’s, they despatched a fairly face out right here to distract me.’”
Initially, Mason complied with out grievance.
“At first I used to be like whew, I defused an enormous problem,” she stated.
However moments later he returned – armed with a raccoon, Hafner claimed.
She stated the raccoon waddled into the crowded restaurant as prospects seemed on in confusion.
“It was extra scared than something,” she stated of the raccoon. “It was fairly upsetting for him.”
Hafner advised her fellow staff to let her deal with the raccoon, however one other worker didn’t hear and tried to grab the furry fiend by his tail. It bit him, she stated, and he needed to get rabies photographs.
So Hafner took over. She calmly grabbed a towel, cornered him, and cradled him exterior the place he scampered off, she stated.
“I’m no metropolis slicker,” Hafner stated. “I’m a Kentucky lady. I had no drawback catching him.”
This was not the primary time Mason was concerned in an animal-related crime.
Final winter, Mason was arrested – twice – for main cops on a wild, drunken chase by means of metropolis streets on a mule. Massive Apple staff needed to name the police on Mason when he allegedly beat the animal with a whip within the car parking zone.
Mason led police on a drunken chase on the mule on the night time of Dec. 7, after which did it once more on Dec. 9, in keeping with police.
Mason refused to depart his automobile when officers pulled him over later that night time after releasing the raccoon, police stated,
He additionally wouldn’t roll down his home windows in order that the officers might query him, in keeping with the discharge.
Ultimately, cops positioned him underneath arrest.
Mason was booked into the Calloway County Jail and is going through fees of third-degree felony trespass, second-degree assault, resisting arrest and failure to keep up insurance coverage.
