Toby’s Lane Couple Sets Trap for Woodchuck, Catches Raccoon, Calls for Help; Wildlife Panel Set for Friday

A Toby’s Lane couple this week phoned police to help set free a raccoon that had become trapped in a cage in the woods that was meant to snare a woodchuck, officials said. Around 8:26 a.m. Monday, the residents reported to the Animal Control section of the New Canaan Police Department that a woodchuck had been decimating their garden and so they set a Havahart-brand trap for it, according to a police report. Yet when a frightened raccoon ended up in the trap, down a steep ravine in the woods at the end of the dead-end street in northern New Canaan, they didn’t know how to get it out, according to Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm. “If you only want to catch a possum, put a sign up that says ‘possum only,’ ” Halm said dryly when asked about the incident. Halm traveled to their home and instructed the couple how to let the animal out, which the wife did, she said.