NORTH NAPLES
A community service deputy tried to help a driver with a baby skunk in his car’s undercarriage on Wednesday in North Naples.
According to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, CCSO Community Service Deputy Paige Long helped a man from Virginia who was stopped in traffic. He told Long that he was driving on Airport-Pulling Road near Vanderbilt Beach Road when he spotted the tiny skunk in front of him. He stopped in the middle of the road to avoid hitting the skunk, and it immediately ran into the engine pan under his BMW.
The man pulled his car into a nearby parking lot where Long attempted to remove the skunk. After many unsuccessful attempts, which included using snake tongs borrowed from another community service deputy, it was decided the man would drive the few blocks home and park next to some bushes in the hope the baby skunk would make its way out of the vehicle on its own.
Long says she was never worried she might get sprayed during the encounter.
“I think he was more scared than anything else and wasn’t in a position to be spraying,” Long said.
WINK NEWS