Pieces of Flair

First worms, now raccoons...

"[Shaker Heights] City regulations allow employees to request so-called 'scavenge' material, but they must ask each time before taking something.

"But DiPietro added that others in the department told him that the practice of taking raccoons home to eat had been permitted for many years.

"'I was advised that it had happened in the past,' DiPietro said. 'It was something that was done in the department.'

"DiPietro acknowledged that ordinary citizens might find the idea unappealing, but he said the employee making the request was a hunter.

"'Everybody's got their own taste,' he added. 'But these are hunters who are into wild game. . . . They eat raccoons. They eat squirrels.'"