Rescued Skunk Keeps Spray to Itself

Sometimes gratitude is best expressed by simply walking away.

Ask Bedford Police Officer Matt Piccirillo, who recently rescued a skunk from a terrible fate, and emerged unscathed by the animal’s signature spray.

The dispatcher took a call around 6 a.m. from a motorist reporting a skunk staggering around The Great Road, its head stuck inside a disposable beverage cup. 

Piccirillo responded, locating the animal in front of the Bedford Car Wash at 345 The Great Rd. The skunk, blinded by his plight, couldn’t see where to run, Piccirillo said.

The officer decided to attempt a rescue. 

“I kind of expected to get sprayed,” he said. “It was the end of my shift. I figured I could just go home and change.”

It wasn’t an easy removal, Piccirillo said; the skunk’s head was really jammed into the cup. So, he turned to a surgical instrument in the back of the cruiser, a piece of metal with a hooked end. It’s known as a Slim Jim, usually used by police to unlock automobile doors.

When he finally removed the stuck cup, using the Slim Jim, Piccirillo recounted, the skunk turned and headed for some nearby woods. Maybe that’s what they mean by “the sweet smell of success.”