The mask couldn't save this bandit

Here's a story about a real masked bandit.

Seems a courthouse in Atlanta had found evidence of an intruder -- a half-eaten apple, some footprints.

The break-in last week at the Richard B. Russell Federal Building was duly reported.

The intruder made no effort to cover his tracks across a stack of federal memos in the 14th-floor office. When the judge started calling his staff and others to exampine the scene, the evidence was conclusive: The perpetrator was a raccoon.

In the days to come, other signs turned up -- stolen chocolate chip cookies on the 10th floor, a missing sandwich on the ninth floor, a packet of dried soup snatched from the 23rd (!) floor.

A "wanted" poster went up along with a "raccoon crossing" sign on the judge's door, according to the Associated Press story posted on LA Unleashed.

The suspect was finally nabbed by using a tuna-baited trap above the ceiling tiles in federal bankruptcy Judge Paul W. Bonapfel's office.

The raccoon was named "Russell" by office workers -- in honor of the building's namesake.

"We're going to see if we can get him turned loose on a farm somewhere," said Robert Perkins, the building's manager. "We're going to take him a long way from this building."

It was a good life while it lasted.