Mini golf employees discover unusual “prize” inside claw machine: a real groundhog
We’ve all tried our luck playing a claw machine at some point in our lives. The prizes are usually the same things: stuffed animals, keychains, etc.
But people at one Pennsylvania golf course discovered something very unexpected in the claw machine: a real-life groundhog!
According to a Facebook post from the Pennsylvania Game Commission, employees at Meadows Family Fun Mini Golf in Duncansville, Pennsylvania were surprised after noticing an unusual “prize” inside the claw machine.
Tucked among the winnable stuffed animals was an actual, living animal — a groundhog who had somehow made its way into the arcade machine and was apparently stuck.
State Game Warden Salvadore Zaffuto received the call and responded on the scene. He reportedly saw the groundhog poke its head out from the prizes.
While it would be fun to report that they got the animal out using the claw, they opted for a much safer and more sensible option: they called the vending machine company, who unlocked the machine, allowing Zaffuto to get the groundhog to safety — making him one of the few lucky people to actually get something from a claw machine game.
According to the post, he released the groundhog back into the wild, unharmed.
Groundhogs are native to Pennsylvania and are one of their most commonly-sighted mammals. They are one of the animals most identified with the state, thanks to local weather-predicting rodent “Punxsutawney Phil” and the world-famous Groundhog Day celebrations.
