So I walked up on a raccoon in my garage last night. He didn't run and just stared at me. I yelled at him, waved my arms around, and he just stood there, looking. I actually had to poke with a broom to chase him out. They must be the more bold urban creatures I've ever met.
You met a feral animal who isn't afraid of you. You subsequent actions could have resulted in a thorough butt-kicking, for you.
Long ago and far away: I was cruising the back road between where I grew up and the nearest town when I saw a raccoon standing up in the middle of the road. I stopped and yelled out of the road dummy. The raccoon didn't move. So: I opened the door, intending to get out and shoo the beast off of the road. Whereupon, it dropped down on all fours, and rounded the car and climbed in. So: I took him home. ------------------------ Considering that I always considered him a "wild animal" we got along well. Raccoons seem to be on the verge of self domestication.
They can defend themselves too. Perhaps it didn't want to run away and expose itself to attack from the rear. They are as smart as a capuchin monkey.
Raccoon are becoming the dominant urban wildlife. City coons live on average twice as long as their country cousins. If Captain Tripps drops in they'll have a large domicile to exploit, at least until the human handouts are exhausted.
Don't forget coyotes. They are common around here. I had a family of 6 howling in my yard one morning.
The metro abandonment of the cylindrical metal garbage can with the loose lid has reduced my encounters with raccoons, but watching a mother raccoon carefully demonstrating to a half circle of four attentive, sitting, quiet, orderly, child raccoons the proper technique for removing one of those lids showed me the future of that tribe. They were already distinguishable from dogs in the garbage - they left the inedibles in a neat pile around the can, easy to put back barring wind.
Yeah, the light was on. We keep the cats' food dish in the garage, so I'm pretty sure the raccoon was having a snack.
You are probably not the first human it's encountered. So, they've learned not to be scared of humans. They're also not really fast movers, unless they actually feel threatened.
The neighbor cats run from me. I think the raccoons might simply be more bold than most critters, an inherent trait that somehow serves them.
If they ever learn to clean up after themselves - so the human is not motivated to secure their garbage, doesn't notice the gradual vanishing of sweet corn ears from the middle of the field, is not faced with an accumulation of feces in the attic, etc - they will be in. Brigands neglect housework. It's what does them in, eventually.