Florida school intruder identified as opossum in girls’ bathroom

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Things got wild inside a central Florida school when an opossum was found inside the girls’ bathroom.

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The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office shared pictures of the mischievous marsupial in a Facebook post, with a caption saying that the school resource officer, upon arriving at Indialantic Elementary, sprang into action “as he was notified that an intruder was on campus and had barricaded themselves in the girls’ bathroom!”

“Deputy Swartz immediately took action to locate, identify, and secure a perimeter around the intruder and then immediately called for backup after he identified the suspect as Harry O. Possum,” deputies said in the post.

Deputy Swartz created a sign warning people away and blocked off the door with crime scene tape to make sure that the opossum didn’t get out, that no students went in, and that the children weren’t frightened. A photo included in the Facebook post shows Deputy Swartz standing guard next to the door.

Deputies said backup arrived in the form of Wild Florida Rescue, which captured the opossum and took him away.

In the post, deputies said the opossum would be charged with trespassing, loitering and prowling, resisting without violence and endangering a school resource deputy.

Opossums are the only marsupial native to Florida and are approximately the size of a house cat, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Adult opossums eat venomous snakes, because they are partially immune to the venom, and also eat any ticks on their fur, eating as many as 5,000 in a single season.

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