Donna Sanginario was hanging up twinkling Christmas lights outside of her home in Lancaster last Wednesday when she heard a noise behind her.
When Sanginario turned around, she found herself looking at a large raccoon that was staring right back at her. Then, without warning, the raccoon attacked her.
“He jumped really high at my face,” Sanginario said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
Sanginario, 70, put her arms up and tried to protect herself. But the animal was relentless.
“I started screaming, and he was screaming,” she said. “He wouldn’t let go.”
The raccoon latched onto her arms and was biting her. When she managed to get the raccoon off of her, he jumped right back up on her again.
“We tumbled to the ground,” she said. “I felt like Crocodile Dundee.”
She eventually overpowered the raccoon. When it stopped moving, she let go.
“He jumped up and started walking away,” she said.
She called her friend who lives up the street and told her what happened.
“I was in shock,” she said.
The police came and searched the area for the raccoon — which Sanginario described as being “very fat, very big” — but were unable to locate it. Her husband also looked for it, without any success.
“They couldn’t find the raccoon anywhere,” she said.
As far as she knows, the animal remains at large.
Sanginario said she received “extensive” bites all over her arms, and she has the marks to prove it. The New England Patriots sweatshirt she was wearing that day was stained and spattered with blood. She had to get a tetanus shot and a series of rabies shots.
But otherwise, she’s OK and hopes that the raccoon doesn’t hurt anyone else.
“I’m going to be fine,” she said.
Emily Sweeney can be reached at emily.sweeney@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emilysweeney.