The Raccoon That Turned a Queens Bank Into a Snowstorm Shelter

A masked visitor entered a Queens bank on the eve of a snowstorm. It did not arrive with a withdrawal slip. It arrived with fur, claws and apparently a preference for being indoors.

The visitor was a raccoon, and the bank was a Chase branch in Forest Hills. Contemporary reports describe an unexpected overnight guest that stayed inside while Winter Storm Stella passed through New York in March 2017. What might sound like the setup for a bank-heist comedy was, in the reporting, a small story about an animal finding shelter.

In 2026, we look back at that documented visit, a small New York moment worth revisiting. The incident took place in March 2017; this is not a report of a new bank visit.

An unusual sight in the window

According to Patch’s March 15, 2017 report, the raccoon entered the branch along Queens Boulevard near Jackie Robinson Parkway sometime on Monday evening, March 13.

Forest Hills resident Mark Elkaim photographed it around 8:30 p.m. He had been heading into his apartment when he noticed the animal in the neighboring bank. The photograph showed the raccoon perched on a cubicle wall: an exceptionally unsuitable employee for a financial institution, but a memorable one.

Patch, citing Elkaim’s account to the New York Post, reported that the animal climbed a chair at a branch representative’s desk and moved toward the window. Rather than disappearing from view, it gave the people outside something to watch.

There is a particular New York pleasure in that scene. The familiar furniture of a bank, including desks, chairs and partitions, suddenly belonged to an animal that had no reason to recognize any of it as unusual.

A bank makes an exception

Chase responded with humor. Spokesman Erich Timmerman told Patch that the bank had made an exception to its no-mask policy because the raccoon was seeking shelter and could not remove its mask.

The joke worked without adding much to the facts. A raccoon’s face already supplies the costume; the bank supplied the setting.

Time Out’s March 16 coverage also described the animal’s overnight stay. The branch was closed because of the storm, leaving its uninvited guest inside until late Tuesday afternoon.

Illustrative photo: David Menke / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, public domain. This is not the raccoon photographed at the bank.

A quiet exit

The visit ended with a wildlife professional rather than a dramatic chase. Patch reported that Steve Nelson of Wildlife Removal Services arrived around 3 p.m. Tuesday. Citing Nelson’s account to DNAinfo, the report said the raccoon was released on private property about four miles from the branch, belonging to people he described as animal lovers.

That ending is the heart of the story: an animal spent a storm in an improbable shelter, people noticed, the bank found a joke, and a trapper took it somewhere else.

The sources reviewed for this article do not establish that the animal entered a vault, shredded cash, prompted an insurance claim or was named “Vault.” They identify the branch as Chase, not Bank of America. Those details are not part of this account.

What remains is delightful enough without them: for one snowy stretch in Queens, a raccoon made a bank its temporary address.

Sources and photographs

This retrospective is based on the linked March 2017 reporting from Patch and Time Out. No new interviews were conducted.

Both photographs show real raccoons but neither depicts this incident or establishes the identity of the Queens animal. The lead portrait is credited to the California Department of Water Resources and is public domain in the United States. The tree photograph is by David Menke of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is public domain.