The difficulty of being a police officer can simply never be overstated. Men and women in uniform put their lives in harm's way on a daily basis to protect the public and, to the greatest extent possible, keep communities in harmony.
Sometimes, police officers get thrown curveballs that require them to perform the kinds of duties typically reserved for trained professionals. Case in point: animal control.
On Saturday, the New Jersey State Police posted the hilarious picture above to their Facebook page to brief the public on an incident from a few weeks ago.
At some point, police say a "masked bandit" broke into Sussex Hospital, possibly driven by a sinister mission to propagate rabies.
"The troop in that photo, taken by hospital staff, leads the way in an attempt to corral the intruder," State Police wrote in their post. "By the looks of it, he was most definitely paying attention to the raccoon capture training in the academy."
As they point out, #CritterCapture101 is an essential training designed precisely for emergencies of this sort, not the sort of thing any cadet can just stroll in and master under duress.
"So you know," the post concluded, "this all turned out just fine."
You may some day find yourself face to face with a situation like the one in the video below. Don't let someone like Rocksy destroy the peace in your home.