5 years ago, a skyscraper-scaling raccoon in St. Paul captivated the internet

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Minnesota is marking five years since a furry adventurer in St. Paul captivated the internet world.

It all began in the late morning of June 12, 2018 when Minnesota Public Radio reporter Tim Nelson noticed a raccoon trapped on an overhang near the bottom of the UBS Building in downtown St. Paul.

"The maintenance staff came out with some two-by-fours screwed together and pushed them up to the raccoon, thinking that he would run down the boards onto the street and escape," Nelson said.

But when raccoons get scared, their instinct is to go up -- and that is exactly what this one did. Over the course of 15 hours, the raccoon scaled the entire building.

Minnesota Public Radio branded the raccoon with the hashtag #mprraccoon, which became the top trend on Twitter. The woodland creature also had its own Twitter account, with one tweet saying, "I made a big mistake." Many feared for the raccoon's safety.

The next day, the raccoon was lured into a trap on the roof and later released back into the wild.

NOTE: Video is from June 15, 2018