Raccoons climbed into the Lehmans’ attic by clawing up brick on the side of their home and ripping the roof’s soffit from the house.

The raccoons had to be trapped and removed. Insulation was replaced, and the attic was sanitized. The project was finished two weeks ago. Luckily for the Lehmans, their homeowners’ insurance covered the charges. But Warren Lehman worries his neighbors may not have insurance policies that cover damage from wild animals.

A few streets away, Harry and Marjorie Lieburn of Tahoe Drive are fed up with raccoons near their home.

In April 2007, the Lieburns returned from Florida to find one raccoon in their basement and about four more in

their chimney.

"We couldn’t get a guy to take it away until the next day," Harry Lieburn said. "It cried down there all night, like a baby crying."

To keep them out, he bolted a wire cap over his chimney and added a cement block to hold it in place. Raccoons constantly tip over the Lieburns’ bird bath and yard animals.

"Sometimes we see five or six parading back and forth in the yard at night," he said. "Motion lights don’t even faze them."

Marjorie Lieburn said she worries about leaving home in the winter because of the raccoons.

"It’s crazy we have so many raccoons in the neighborhood," said Phyllis Lehman, 83. "It’s this neighbor feeding them, that’s what’s causing so much trouble."

‘Poor guy’s hungry’

"You have to feel sorry for those animals," said Helga Glaser, 72, of Ascot Drive. "We built houses and took their habitat."

Glaser said one raccoon comes to her house regularly and once brought his four babies. "It was cute. My whole porch was filled with raccoons," she said. Helga and her husband leave old bread and peanuts on their back porch for them.

"He looks for his food," she said. "One time I looked out the bathroom window and he went up on the side of the house and looked at us. We figured, ‘poor guy’s hungry,’ so we give him bread."

She said the raccoon is very tame. Rabies and home damage are not a concern, she said.

A few houses down on Ascot Drive, Carol Ockey-Katt, 49, lets raccoons live in her attic.

"A couple years ago, we had raccoons nesting in the attic," she said. "We don’t consider them at all a problem. It’s a nonissue."

Ockey-Katt and her family made no efforts to remove the raccoons, which entered her attic by climbing up a wood wall in her garage.

"I consider the remaining wildlife a gift," she said. "We’ve done unquantifiable damage to their property."

It’s all legal

Feeding wild animals is allowed, but so is live-trapping and removing them, said Capt. Tom Petersen of the Mount Pleasant Police Department.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources urges residents to contact local animal control or trappers, said Marty Johnson, a state Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist.

"Any landowner can live-trap a raccoon," he said. "The dilemma you have is once you catch them, what do you do with them? We recommend that people humanely put the animal down."

Putting the animal down is preferred to releasing it elsewhere. It is illegal to release any wild animal on a property, including state lands, without permission. Even if it were legal, the animals usually do not survive, Johnson said.

"If raccoons are hanging out in a location, there’s generally something attracting them — a food source, shelter," he said. "Until you eliminate that, there’s nothing you can do."

Johnson said feeding the animals can do more harm than good.

"Human food has preservatives that are not good for animals," Johnson said. "Having an added food source also increases population size."

Because the raccoons in Mount Pleasant are legally receiving food and shelter, Johnson said the only option for residents tired of raccoons is to talk some sense into their neighbors.