New Yorker cries ‘tiger’: Calls 911, raises false alarm after mistaking a raccoon for the big cat

Remember the fable of the boy who cried wolf every time he was bored? Well, by the looks of it, he seems to have transcended as a New York City dweller from our nursery storybooks.

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Not only did the false alarm break hell loose on social media, it also happened to make an otherwise ‘non-happening Thursday’ a little wild for some local reporters.(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Remember the fable of the boy who cried wolf? Well, for those who don’t, there was this guy who would create a false alarm that a wolf was roaming free every time he was bored. And by the looks of it, he seems to have transcended into real life from our nursery storybooks. According to local media reports, a civilian in New York called 911 to report sighting a tiger on loose in Upper Manhattan. But guess what the police found the animal to be? A raccoon! While to the normal human eye, differentiating between a ferocious tiger and a little raccoon should not take much time, an NBC New York report conceded that “they do both have black markings”, probably making it difficult to figure out, prima facie. Not only did the false alarm break hell loose on social media, it also happened to make an otherwise ‘non-happening Thursday’ a little wild for some local reporters.

An NYPD spokesperson reportedly said that he had “no idea” how was the raccoon mistaken for a tiger. Meanwhile some reporters took to Twitter sharing how the new of “it was a raccoon” dampened their spirits.

After reports of a tiger on the loose in Washington Heights, NYPD tells me animal control has contained a …. raccoon. How the mix up happened? NYPD spox: No idea.

— Brendan Krisel (@Brendan_Krisel) 12 April 2018

Not my typical Thursday morning. When trying to confirm a report that there was a tiger on the loose in Upper Manhattan, an inundated @NYPDnews spokesman answers phone with this line: “It’s not a tiger, it’s a raccoon.”

— Christine Hauser (@christineNYT) 12 April 2018

Me: you got anything on a tiger in Washington Heights?
NYPD spokesman: not a tiger. it’s a raccoon.
Me: for real?
NYPD spokesman: dead serious. welcome to Thursday morning.

— Alex Silverman (@AlexSilverman) 12 April 2018

We’re trying to confirm this report of a tiger loose in Upper Manhattan: https://t.co/CC91y9O4iP #CitizenAppNYC pic.twitter.com/1XR6ruODXq

— Citizen (@citizenapp) 12 April 2018

A concerned citizen mistook a raccoon in Washington Heights for a tiger. God I love @citizenapp alerts pic.twitter.com/w4HPtiXuXi

— Laura Stampler (@laurastampler) 12 April 2018

Sure. Because a 500-lb tiger and a 10-lb raccoon are the same exact thing. Totally https://t.co/Z3Com05cMb

— Eastside story 🇬🇭 (@Br00klynz0wnEsq) 12 April 2018

It’s a mistake we’ve all made. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to take out the trash and thought I saw a raccoon digging through the garbage and it turned out to be a tiger. https://t.co/zOAmiv5W5Y

— Scott…or is it? (@ScottyDubsNYC) 12 April 2018