Toronto raccoon breaking into raccoon-proof green bin caught on camera

Have I told you how smart raccoons are lately? Yeah?

Well... it can't be said enough - especially to anyone who thinks they can somehow trick our cutest, most-clever compatriots out of eating all the garbage. It is not possible.

One of Toronto's mischievous forest friends foiled human engineers (again) this weekend by demonstrating (yet again) that the city's $31 million raccoon-proof green bins are nothing of the sort.

Unlike the many raccoons who've chewed through green bins or knocked them over for the sweet, sweet trash inside, a critter caught on camera this weekend was seen "unlocking" a bin in The Beaches with his hands. 

It took him less than 30 seconds to crawl inside.

Someone in #Toronto took a video of a raccoon breaking into a raccoon-proof green bin https://t.co/lFkyHx2nDI pic.twitter.com/tY7oT5s006

— blogTO (@blogTO) April 12, 2018

Graeme Boyce, who lives near Kingston Road and Queen Street East, posted video footage of the incident on Facebook Saturday evening.

"There I was minding my own business a few minutes ago, when I heard the toboggan being loudly tossed aside - an alert when the raccoon was atop the bins," he wrote.

"And so for those people who said the new green bins are 'raccoon proof'..." 

Boyce's video starts on his front porch, where just a tiny paw can be seen peeking out from behind an obstacle moving towards the green bin.

The camera pans in just in time for Boyce to catch the raccoon using his dexterous little hands to twist the green bin's handle, open the lid and crawl inside.

"I thought that's pretty brazen. It's broad daylight, a busy street, and I thought there's no way he can open that bin," said Boyce to CBC Toronto on Wednesday. "A few seconds later there he was opening the handle and helping himself to dinner." 

"He's obviously done it before and he's quite good at it."