By Gail Paschall-Brown

    MERRITT ISLAND, Florida (WESH) -- Raccoons invaded the Klerner household in Merritt Island early Sunday morning, scaring their cats and causing chaos, which was later discovered through home surveillance footage.

Richard Klerner said, "We started looking at all the raccoons and they were having a party. There were several of them on the steps right there, several of them in the jacuzzi, just splashing around, three of them in the jacuzzi splashing around. The nerve, and then looking at the other video from the side covered porch, we saw them coming in and out of the house."

The raccoons entered and exited their screened porch, ate the cat food, and overturned all the water bowls. "They ate all the cat food that was out for our kitties and spilled the bowl all over the dining room," Klerner said. His wife counted eight raccoons. "And I'm like, that's a lot of raccoons," he said.

Klerner was concerned the raccoons could have had rabies. "I just thought wild raccoons and they're in my home and you don't know where they've been, where they're from, and you had the grandkids in the house, and we had the grandkids in the house," he said.

He called authorities, including 911, the Florida Wildlife Commission, and tried reaching out to Brevard County Animal Services. Klerner mentioned that his neighbors have also had trouble with raccoons.

When asked about the kitty doors, Klerner explained, "That's how they got in. I do have slides as soon as I knew they were out, I put slides on the door and got the cats back in and slept on the couch where we're sitting to make sure there was no recurrence."

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