The Improbable Journey

Illustrating how deer and bears likely migrated to Manhattan, a raccoon yesterday made the trip on a bus arriving from Montclair, NJ. The raccoon went unnoticed by a bus full of students until the driver something odd walking down the aisle:

A New Jersey raccoon made an improbable journey to the big city yesterday, stowing away on a crowded charter bus unnoticed until all of the passengers had gotten off.

“Oh, man, it scared me,” said Decamp driver Winford Bellamy, 57, who spotted the masked bandit while driving drove down 11th Ave. near W. 51st St.

“I looked in my mirror, and saw him just walking up the aisle to the front of the bus,” Bellamy said.

The 2-foot female raccoon came strolling down the aisle minutes after Bellamy dropped off his 50 passengers, a group of Montclair State University students, at a firehouse on W. 51st St.

Immediately after seeing the raccoon, the shocked driver pulled up alongside a police car.

“Man, I got an animal in this bus,” he told a cop.

The officer instructed Bellamy to turn on 40th St. and get out of the bus.

By the time NYPD Emergency Service Unit officers arrived, the raccoon was clinging to the curtains above the bus’ door.

Officer Brian Glacken, 30, opened the driver-side window and hit the normally nocturnal animal with a tranquilizer dart.

The dazed raccoon was collared moments later.

The raccoon was later killed.