A three-legged raccoon and her five babies brought police and students together Tuesday outside Willard Residential College for a rescue effort complete with a large wooden cross and sugar cookies, students said.

A student found the raccoons stuck in water in a drainage ditch next to Willard around 10 a.m. Police were called later that afternoon.

The mother raccoon and four babies were able to climb out by using a dead branch students put in the ditch, said Paul Bryan, a Weinberg sophomore and a Willard resident.

Students tried to rescue the last baby raccoon by using a cross used in the Northwestern production “Jesus Christ Superstar,” said David Rubenstein, a Weinberg sophomore and Willard resident.

A University Police officer was finally able to rescue the last baby raccoon later that night by luring it into a shoe box, said Asst. Chief Daniel McAleer of UP.

The crowd, which was throwing sugar cookies and bread into the ditch, grew to as large as 25 people, said Robert Teng, a Weinberg sophomore who saw the event from his first-floor bedroom.

Students had given the raccoon nicknames such as “Stumpy” and “Tripod,” said Ryan Vogt, a Medill sophomore who first discovered the raccoon.

“Willard definitely owns this raccoon,” Vogt said. “It’s home is Willard.”

— Helena Oh