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Nearly seven years after the MPR raccoon 

 on the side of a St. Paul skyscraper — another Minnesota raccoon has beaten the odds to escape a life-threatening predicament.

Utility officials in Rochester say a wayward raccoon 

survived a close encounter with a transformer

 in an electrical substation early Wednesday.

The incident knocked out power to a couple thousand homes and businesses in the northeast part of the city. 

Rochester Public Utilities crews were able to restore electrical service to all customers by about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. 

In later updates — you could call them “shocking” developments — Rochester Public Utilities said the “little rascal” responsible for the outage survived its brush with high voltage, and left the substation on its own.

“That’s not usually the case when animals come into contact with our infrastructure, so we’re relieved this story has a good ending,” 

 — adding: “To our furry friend: wishing you a full recovery… and please, steer clear of our equipment next time!”

Because the raccoon may have been hurt in its brush with the transformer, officials asked that anyone who sees an injured raccoon in northeast Rochester to call the city’s Animal Control so it can get medical care.

MPR News Staff

Author

Nearly seven years after the MPR raccoon survived its high-wire adventure on the side of a St. Paul skyscraper — another Minnesota raccoon has beaten the odds to escape a life-threatening predicament.

Raccoon survives encounter with electrical transformer in Rochester

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