i've never heard this word and i cant find it on the internet. the german word for raccon is waschbär (washing bear) afaik
actually, the official french word for raccon also seems to be raton laveur (washing) and not voleur (stealing), but i dont speak enough french to know if they are called raton voleur in some dialect or slang
Have you encountered raccoons? I've met racoons they'll steal everything from you in a heartbeat, and the mask is a dead giveaway. You think the guys roommate would complain about the raccoons of they came by to do his laundry instead of stealing all his stuff. Laveur is just a typo, Erwin Guttenburger admitted it in 1678 that he tripped while putting the letters in the press for the wildlife almanach. It went out as Raton-loveur at first. Correcting the error would throw the whole books layout out of alignment so the next edition was changed by replacing the O for an A, to put an end to that weird new fetish that was gaining popularity among the literate elite.