ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – There is an unfamiliar sight in Carl Bost\u2019s front yard in South City: an animal trap. <\/p>\n
He hopes he can save a groundhog, known as Fred to some, that is currently stuck in a hole under his porch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know people that would come that would stick a shotgun down in the hole,\u201d said Bost. \u201cThat\u2019s not what I wanted because he is a peaceful animal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bost told First Alert 4 that a groundhog has been down there for a while. Normally, it wouldn\u2019t be a big deal, as he likes wildlife. But the problem is that a contractor is set to come this weekend to fix his porch and fill the hole with concrete.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want him to get buried alive because I think that\u2019s crueler than trapping them,\u201d said Bost.<\/p>\n
So he hired a professional who would capture and release the animal into the wild.<\/p>\n
Within an hour, Fred was in the trap. But then neighbors grew worried, and Bost\u2019s doorbell video shows a concerned woman and another neighbor who opens the trap and lets Fred free.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m frustrated because I don\u2019t know what to do,\u201d said Bost.<\/p>\n
Bost, sleeping at the time, woke up to a flurry of text messages from his next-door neighbor, the woman in the white shirt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe groundhog is in the trap, please don\u2019t kill Fred, if my grandaughter sees you killed Fred, she\u2019s going to be upset,\u201d said Bost.<\/p>\n
So the neighbors, worried about Bost killing Fred, released him, again risking the animal being buried under concrete.<\/p>\n
Missouri law bans people from tampering with a legally set trap, a class A misdemeanor.<\/p>\n
Bost has spent hundreds of dollars for the trap being set twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want people to get arrested, I don\u2019t want people to be fined. I would like to be compensated for the $150 already spent,\u201d said Bost.<\/p>\n
Bost, using repellent pellets and even peanuts, hopes Fred leaves the hole by Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
A possum was taking a nap in the trap when First Alert 4 arrived \u2014 even after Bost opened the door to let it go.<\/p>\n
First Alert 4 went to the homes of the people in the video. One said they didn\u2019t know what we were talking about, and the next-door neighbor, Donna, said it was a misunderstanding and she just wanted to ensure the animal wasn\u2019t killed. She wishes her neighbor didn\u2019t put out bird food to lure potential vermin.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 KMOV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – There is an unfamiliar sight in Carl Bost\u2019s front yard in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":258965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[135988,135990,381,135992,135989,62325,159,67,132,68,135991,837,122398,14271],"class_list":{"0":"post-258964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-bost","9":"tag-first-alert-4","10":"tag-for","11":"tag-groundhog","12":"tag-kmov","13":"tag-news-4","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-watchinog-out-fo-ryou","19":"tag-wildlife","20":"tag-worried","21":"tag-you"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115276783814229298","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}