Video captured a Wisconsin raccoon that crashed through a restaurant ceiling and sent a diner to the hospital

Fine dining turned into a nightmare at a Wisconsin resort.

One guest who tried to help ended up hospitalized.

And video captured a Wisconsin raccoon that crashed through a restaurant ceiling and sent a diner to the hospital.

Raccoon drops from ceiling at Grand Geneva Resort

Sunday evening at Grand Geneva Resort's Ristorante Brissago started like any other upscale dining experience in Wisconsin.

Guests sat down expecting gourmet Italian cuisine in an elegant atmosphere around 7:30 pm.

What they got instead was a large raccoon crashing through the ceiling tiles and landing on a dining room table.

The animal immediately became aggressive — brawling, scratching, and hissing at the stunned diners.

One brave guest tried to catch the wild animal with their bare hands.

That good deed backfired badly — the raccoon bit them and they had to be taken to the hospital.

"We don't know how this raccoon got there," Matt Snorek with Guaranteed Gone Wildlife Control told Fox 6 Milwaukee.¹

"It was quite a large raccoon," Snorek explained. "So he was on it for the 25 minutes I was on the way there as this thing was brawling, scratching, hissing."¹

Walworth County Sheriff's deputies arrived to find the aggressive animal had barricaded itself in a corner of a back dining room.

Deputies briefly considered using a taser on the cornered animal.

Instead, they worked with wildlife control to trap it under a trash can using a catch pole.

"It certainly had a lot of vigor and energy and, you know, anger and spite being under that tote," Snorek said.²

Cold weather drives wildlife into dangerous situations

Snorek explained that brutally cold weather in Wisconsin has been driving animals to seek shelter in buildings.

"When it gets brutally cold like it was these last two days, it's not uncommon to get these calls for raccoons going into a structure," Snorek told Fox 6.³

The incident serves as a stark reminder why people should never try to handle wild animals without proper training.

"Appreciation, love for wildlife is a great thing," Snorek said. "Just don't try to do things outside of your pay grade, or above your level of comfort. Trust your instincts."²

The hospitalized guest had to endure the anxiety of waiting for rabies test results.

Because the raccoon bit someone, authorities had no choice but to euthanize the animal and send it to Madison for testing.

That's standard protocol any time a wild animal bites a human — the only way to definitively test for rabies requires euthanizing the animal to examine brain tissue.

According to the Walworth County Department of Health and Human Services, the raccoon tested negative for rabies.⁴

That was welcome news for the victim, who otherwise would have faced a series of painful rabies shots.

Snorek noted that rabid raccoons are extremely rare in Wisconsin — he hasn't encountered one in his 20-year career.

"The chances are very minimal, but with the near 100% mortality, it's something you really can't take lightly," Snorek explained.²

Lt. Pete Kruger with the Walworth County Sheriff's Department said he'd never dealt with anything like it.

"I've never had a call like that," Kruger told NBC Chicago. "This would be unusual."⁵

Grand Geneva Resort managing director Skip Harless kept the official response brief.

"A raccoon entered the building Sunday night," Harless told NBC Chicago. "Animal Control was contacted, and the animal was removed."⁵

What started as an elegant dinner at one of Wisconsin's premier resorts turned into a trip to the hospital for one guest who tried to do the right thing.

The incident raises serious questions about building maintenance and how a large raccoon managed to access the ceiling space above a fine dining restaurant.

For the guests who witnessed it, Sunday's dinner came with a side of chaos they'll never forget.

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¹ "Raccoon falls through ceiling at Grand Geneva restaurant, bites guest who tried to catch it," Fox 6 Milwaukee, December 2025.

² "Raccoon falls through ceiling at Grand Geneva restaurant, bites guest who tried to catch it," CBS 58, December 2025.

³ Ibid.

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ "Raccoon Fell on Dining Room Table at Lake Geneva Resort," Complex, December 2025.