HONOLULU — Honolulu police captured an opossum crawling around a downtown office building on Wednesday morning with a broomstick and plastic bin.
An office worker first spotted the opossum on a window ledge in the gated downway outside the Austin Building (formerly the Hawaiian Electric Company building) at 223 S. King Street, according to a news release.
The office worker then alerted the Honolulu Police Department, who were able to climb over the locked gate to capture the animal.
Next, Plant Quarantine inspectors from the Hawaii Department of Agriculture were called and when they arrived, they took custody of the opossum.
The opossum is about 2-feet long from head to tail. The Hawaii Department of Agriculture said it is not known how the opossum arrived in Honolulu, but in the past they have come over in shipping containers.
In Hawaii, over the years, several opossums have been captured:
- June 2016 - an opossum was captured by workers unloading a cargo ship at Honolulu Harbor.
- July 2015 - an opossum was captured in Kakaako near the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Office on Ala Moana Blvd, an area surrounded by arriving cargo.
- July 2012 - an opossum was caught in a cat trap at a Sand Island warehouse.
- August 2011 - an opossum was found in a shipping container as it was being unloaded in the Ward Center area.
- 2005 - an opossum was captured inside a military cargo plane at Hickam Air Force Base and another opossum was found in the mail receiving area of the U.S. Postal Service facility at Honolulu International Airport.
Native to North American, opossums are omnivorous, eating insects, birds, eggs, rodents, fruits and vegetables. The opossum should not be confused with the possum, which live in Australia.
Opossums occasionally carry rabies, other parasites and diseases. Because the origin of the opossum is unknown, the Hawaii Department of Agriculture is testing it for rabies.