Raccoons Mistake Cybertruck For Dumpster, And Wyoming Auto Experts Agree

After raccoons tried unsuccessfully to break into the covered bed of a Minnesota man’s Cybertruck, he went online to brag the the vehicle had proven itself “raccoon-proof.”

It didn’t take long for thousands of responders to point out that while his Cybertruck may be secure from raccoons, the troublemaking critters apparently think the Cybertruck looks like a dumpster.

People started teasing him, saying the trash pandas went after the Cybertruck in the first place because it looks similar to the garbage dumpsters they’re used to raiding.

Some Wyoming auto experts say that’s not an unfair assessment.

“I do think the Cybertruck, in a certain light, looks exactly like a dumpster,” automotive writer Aaron Turpen of Cheyenne told Cowboy State Daily.

Automotive journalist Vince Bodiford agreed.

He believes the raccoons could have tried to break into the vehicle because they “may have really thought it was a garbage dumpster. I get it, it’s a mistake that’s understandable,” said Bodiford, who runs theweekenddrive.com, an online automotive magazine based in Cheyenne and Detroit.

Social Media Backlash

After a recent camping trip in Minnesota, Cybertruck owner Nic Cruz Patane posted on X (formerly Twitter) that raccoons had tried to tear open the panel covering the vehicle’s bed. Their muddle footprints are all over the Cybertruck’s bed cover.

Although they did considerable damage to the panel, they weren’t able to breach it, Patane posted.

He bragged that his Cybertruck had been proven “raccoon-proof.”

But that claim backfired on him in the social media sphere. People started chiding him for owning a vehicle that raccoons think is a dumpster.

Turpen said he’s seen some of the online blowback, and it’s entertaining.

“I’ve seen the memes, it’s hilarious,” he said.

Bodiford said the Cybertruck dissing was likely deserved, because the vehicle just doesn’t fit the pickup mold.

Going all the way back to the first Ford Model T trucks in the early 1900s, pickups have shared a common linage, he said.

“If you follow the design of that particular pickup, the original Model T, every new iteration of the pickup truck has made sense, it’s got some sort of utility connection to that very first pickup,” he said.

Not so with the Cybertruck, Bodiford said.

“The Cybertruck doesn’t have a logical connection to anything resembling a pickup truck,” he said. “I do think it has more in common with a dumpster than a pickup.”

‘Magic White Fluffberries’

Raccoons are the ultimate opportunists and likely went after the Cybertruck because the smelled something yummy inside, wildlife rescuer Patricia Wyer told Cowboy State Daily.

“There must have been something in the vehicle that drew them in,” said Wyer, who runs the Broken Bandit Wildlife Center near Cheyenne.

Although the idea that the raccoons were drawn to the Cybertruck because they thought was a dumpster is hysterical, raccoons will try breaking into just about anything that has food in it, she said.

Over the years, she’s taken in many raccoons and said there’s one thing in particular they find irresistible – marshmallows.

“I’m pretty sure there were marshmallows in the Cybertruck, because raccoons really love marshmallows,” she said. “They love the sweet flavor of them. We call marshmallows ‘magic white fluffberries’ here at the rescue center.”

The ‘Blade Runner’ Angle Fell Flat

Bodiford said if Cybertrucks really do look like dumpsters to raccoons, and marshmallows are a raccoon magnet, then taking a Cybertruck with marshmallows in it camping in Wyoming would be a doubly bad idea.

“If that’s the case, then you probably shouldn’t drive one into Yellowstone,” he said.

Turpen said he understands what Cybertruck producer Elon Musk was going for with the vehicle’s design, but it’s turned out to be a huge miss, at least in Wyoming.

“He was going for the ‘Blade Runner’ look,” Turpen said, referencing the classic Sci-Fi film. “As a nerd, I understand that, but I think Cybertrucks are over-hyped and over-priced.”

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.