I had a friend who was a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. His specialty was baby coons. Loggers would cut down trees with nests, etc. & he’d end up with them. If they were really small, he’d carry them around in a pet crate so they could be bottle fed at the proper times. There’s not much cuter than a baby coon .... and then they grow up. His coons all got rabies shots. He had an outdoor pen for them and when time to release into the wild, he’d just leave the door open - they’d come and go for a while, then disappear. His favorite coon came back one time with a baby in tow, just to visit I guess. He never saw her again after that.
We have big, fat old coon that I call “Ricky” who has been getting into our trash - the rascal can pry off the tops that I even have trouble prying off sometimes. I put on “Ricky wraps” (rope/bungee cords to hold the tops on) & although I see his footprints on the can tops & we catch him on the game cam every couple of days, he’s been thwarted so far, but I can see an unhappy ending for Ricky if he keeps getting into trouble.
We have had the same. I had to weld substantial latches for lids on our trash barrels.