Just before Halloween, San Francisco Muni riders were greeted by a grim specter: a dead raccoon, bleeding from its head, being swung around by a masked man as a train full of passengers looked on in horror. .
The video provides a fuller picture of the bizarre Oct. 29 event. A man dressed in a hooded jacket, gloves, and a mask is seen standing on a platform as a train arrives. In a surreal display, he hurries across the street to retrieve a dead raccoon from the sidewalk as if it were a prized possession, then sprints back to board the rush-hour train, holding the beast.
The events unfolded on the M line in the West Portal and Saint Francis Wood sections of the city.
After picking up the raccoon by the tail, the man clambers onto the train through the center doors and drops the remains on the floor, prompting one passenger to bolt for the exit, the footage shows.
The beast handler then takes an empty seat, leading nearby riders to vacate their seats, congregating near an exit as another slides across the bench farther away from the deceased. The man sits near the carcass, gesturing while he appears to speak.
Several people disembark when the doors open, at which point the man picks up the raccoon again and deposits it on an empty seat. He then moves to another seat farther from the animal. He sits back, apparently relaxed, and crosses his legs.
Another camera shows the train operator talking briefly on a phone. It’s unclear who is contacted, but SFMTA officials confirmed that passengers were evacuated, and the train was taken out of service that morning to be cleaned.
The footage shows the raccoon man fetching his furry friend and leaving the train. Moments after he disembarks, the rest of the riders on the train begin clearing out.
Although SFMTA officials did not provide details about the footage, it appears to match a description recounted by a Lowell High School student who witnessed the event on an M train traveling toward Balboa Park.