VIDEO: Ring doorbell captures masked bandit with seven babies on front porch in Adams County

Published 12:16 pm Monday, July 24, 2023

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NATCHEZ — A rather large family of masked bandits were spotted on a Ring doorbell outside the home of an Adams County resident, though not one to raise any alarm.

The mama raccoon with seven babies is guilty of trespassing on the property at least twice for the harmless act of stealing acorns.

Though he lives on rural White Apple Road seven miles outside of Natchez and is used to seeing wildlife, Doug Fisher said he was surprised to find a raccoon mother with that many kits.

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“We live out in the country, and I have never seen a momma raccoon with seven babies,” he said.

Fisher said though raccoons can be seen as a nuisance to some by digging through trash or gardens, he wasn’t bothered by them.

“I thought it was kind of cute,” he said. “It’s kind of rare, in my opinion.”

A raccoon mama can have a litter a year with three to six kits in a single litter on average but can have up to eight kits at a time. They’re known to linger where there is a food source, in Fisher’s case, a grove of acorn-bearing trees in his backyard.

Fisher’s camera recorded the adorable family crossing his porch on two occasions.

The first crossing was at around 12:30 a.m. on July 9.

Exactly one week later, on July 16, he saw them again just after 6 a.m. They appeared to be going back the same way they came.

This wasn’t his first raccoon encounter, he said.

“Last year, she had three babies, or at least I think it was her,” he said. “We tend to have a menagerie of animals on our porches. I think they’re beautiful animals.”

If the raccoons were to become a nuisance, Fisher said he owns traps to capture and relocate them humanely.

“They haven’t caused a nuisance to me, so I haven’t bothered capturing them to relocate them,” he said.