Video Shows Ohio Police Officer Finding Raccoon Holding Meth Pipe In Driver’s Seat

A Springfield Township, Ohio, police officer found a raccoon holding a meth pipe in its mouth during a Monday evening arrest, police said.

Springfield Township Police Department (STPD) Officer Austin Branham stopped 55-year-old Victoria Vidal after identifying her vehicle, according to a department post on Facebook. She was allegedly driving with an active warrant and a suspended driver’s license and was taken into custody without incident.

A video shows Branham discover a raccoon, allegedly the woman’s pet named “Chewy,” sitting in the driver’s seat with a meth pipe between its paws and the pipe’s opening pressed to its mouth when he returns to the vehicle.

“The racoon has a meth pipe,” Branham can be heard saying amid laughter before confiscating the item. Chewy then allegedly obtained a second meth pipe, according to PIX 11 News.

“He’s trying to smoke it,” Branham then says before taking it in the video. “All right, enough fun and games.”

Chewy was not harmed, police said.

Police said the discovery prompted a search of the vehicle. Officers allegedly found crack cocaine, a bulk quantity of methamphetamine and three used glass pipes. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: GOP Sens Urge Trump Admin To Restart Fentanyl, Drug Seizure Effort Biden)

“Your raccoon gave you away,” Branham can be heard telling Vidal while she was handcuffed in the back of his vehicle.

Authorities charged Vidal with third-degree felony drug possession and three counts of possession of drug paraphernalia. She was then transferred to Cayuga Falls law enforcement for the active warrant against her, police said.

Law enforcement seized approximately 1,140 pounds of methamphetamine in the state in 2024, a significant increase from 302 pounds seized in 2019, according to a 2024 report from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.

In the same report, Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine credited the seizures done by the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission’s task forces with playing a large role in reducing the number of overdose deaths statewide over the past two years.

A 2023 report from the Ohio Department of Health showed a 9% decline in verified unintentional overdose deaths across Ohio compared to the year prior. The number dropped from 4,915 to 4,452.

A June 2024 drug trend report from the Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring Network quoted a community treatment provider saying that meth is the most common drug in the Akron-Canton region, where the video of the raccoon was filmed. “I don’t think I’ve ever come across a client who has never not tried ‘meth’ (methamphetamine) at least once,” the provider said.