The prize inside a claw machine is usually a stuffed animal. After a few customers peered into a claw machine on the premises of Hollidaysburg Pennsylvania’s mini golf and frozen custard shop called Meadows, they found a furry creature that was a little more animate than the rest.
Moving among the sea of stuffed animals was a real live groundhog.
Pennsylvania is essentially groundhog central, and the area of Hollidaysburg is quite close to the famous Groundhog Day HQ Punxsutawney, the home of the weather predicting-groundhog Phil.
The manager at the store retold the incident of two customers who spotted the little critter in the machine. When the customers were looking at the stuffed animals, deciding which one they’d try for, they were surprised when eyes blinked from the sea of toys.
The games on Meadows’ premises are located in a converted garage. Many assume that the animal came into the machine and clawed up into it to keep warm for the night. At first, the manager called the claw machine company to remove the groundhog. When the company hesitated, Meadows called the police, who got in touch with the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s animal control. Unlocking the machine and setting the groundhog safely in a crate, the commissioner then went to set the groundhog back into the wild.
While the whole ordeal wasn’t drawn out, the shop Meadows took to promoting the incident, making the groundhog a sort of local legend. The shop started selling shirts saying “respect the groundhog.” The shop also did a poll to name the little groundhog, and they decided to go with the name Colonel Custard, paying homage to the frozen custard they sell.
Colonel Custard, reports the manager, has been great for business. They also cleaned up and restocked that same claw machine with groundhog stuffed animals.