Alabama woman finds opossums sleeping in her drawers

(UPI) An Alabama woman who found an opossum napping in her dresser drawer said she found a second opossum in another drawer the next day -- followed by a third.

Brittany McLaney of Antioch said her mother, Judy, asked her to get her some clothes out of her dresser Saturday after undergoing rotator cuff surgery.

"When, I reached in her panty drawer, there was this thing staring at me. I could see beady eyes. So, I eased the drawer closed," McLaney told The Andalusia Star-News.

"She asked me if it was a mouse," McLaney said. I said, 'No, it's much bigger. It's either a possum or a raccoon.' Mom says, 'Open the drawer and let's get a look.' So we eased the drawer out.'

The mother and daughter found themselves face to face with an opossum.

"It just lays there staring at us," McLaney said. She said, 'Go get Wayne.' That's our neighbor and handyman. I literally ran over there.

Wayne, it turns out, was sick, leaving McLaney to take care of the opossum herself. She said she used "an old person grabber device" to put the opossum in a cardboard box, which she then took to the nearby woods to release the animal.

Judy McLaney said in a Facebook post Sunday that the opossum's release wasn't the end of the saga.

"It didn't occur to me yesterday to check the other dresser drawers, so this morning.......second drawer, second possum. You just can't make this up....proof is in the pictures," she wrote.

Brittany McLaney said her mother caught a third opossum Monday.

"At 3 a.m., my mom scooped the third opossum up in some panties and released it into the woods," she said.

The mother and daughter then discovered how the animals had gotten into the house -- a trap door had been removed behind their shower for some recent plumbing work.

"They were coming in from under the house and through the trap door and getting in the panty drawer," Brittany McLaney said.