Masked squatters keep peeking into her window.
A family of raccoons living in a crevice between a Bronx woman’s apartment and the house next door is giving the tenant nightmares — but the landlord won’t do anything to block off the critter den, she told The Post Friday.
Haydee Villanueva, 39, of Morrisania, said the nocturnal rascals have tormented her for months by scratching at her bedroom window, crawling on it — and peering menacingly inside.
“They stare at me and it’s creepy as hell. They’ll just look at me like I’m bothering them — like this is their home,” she said. “For me that’s terrifying.”
Villanueva said she’s lost sleep over the pesky procyonidae — and fears they’ll somehow invade her bedroom and bite or claw her.
“I’ve had nightmares,” she said. “I’ve had [dreams] where the raccoons come and attack me and I had to cut them with a machete.”
“I’m scared because they have been known to attack humans,” said Villanueva — a native New Yorker with little experience in the great outdoors.
Haydee Villanueva says a group of raccoons living outside her window have been tormenting her. Matthew McDermott for NY PostBut when she complained to her landlord and the building’s super, they did little to help, she charged.
“They’re completely aware and they haven’t done anything,” she said. “They need to do their job.”
So Villanuevas tried stuffing the makeshift den with barbed wire, nails and mothballs to repel the raccoons. Because they are considered “wildlife” by the city and. raccoons can’t be exterminated like rats.
The raccoons peer creepily into her bedroom, she said. Courtesy of Haydee VillanuevaShe also set out bowls of peppermint mouthwash — following an apparent internet remedy — and banged on the window with a large insect-zapper. The raccoons don’t care.
“I try to startle them…but they’re very resilient and they’ll look at me and go back to sleep,” she said.
The fearless furballs pay her an unwelcome visit at least once a day, and sometimes fight loudly just feet from her bed, she recounted.
The raccoons live in a nook between an apartment building and a house. Spectrum News NY1Villanuevas first learned the raccoons had made themselves at home next to her bedroom two months ago, after she heard a strange noise and pulled back the window curtain.
“I just assumed it was a rat so I didn’t even want to look because I’m afraid of rats. But the noise kept going,” said Villanueva. “My heart was pounding.”
Villanuevas now wants to get rid of the window completely so she doesn’t have to deal with the animals.
Villanueva has set up nails and barbed wire to deter the animals. Spectrum News NY1“I thought they would leave after a while but I realized this is not them looking for food. This is their home, this is their den,” she lamented.
And though she doesn’t much like them, she respects the scrappy critters for surviving in the urban jungle.
“The Bronx raccoons are gangster. They have to be. To live in the Bronx, to survive here is hard,” she said. “We are the poorest borough so they are trying to survive like the rest of us here.”



“Just don’t do it in my window,” she added.
Chestnut Holdings, which owns the building, sent a statement from the building’s super, who claimed the building has had no problems with the garbage-munching raccoons.
“I have not seen any recent signs of a raccoon and have not received any report of sightings by other residents. I make sure to check and secure the trash receptacles all the time,” Jose Mercado, the super of the College Avenue building, told NY1, which first reported the startling story.
“Our tenant wanted us to brick up the window, but that is illegal and unsafe. The tenant also requested an interior window security gate but has now refused installation. We also have alerted our Pest Control Service Company to the potential issue.”
When raccoons become a problem, the city’s 311 office recommends residents “eliminate conditions on a property that can be used as dens.”
Chestnut Holdings didn’t immediately return The Post’s request for comment Friday.






