Pat Graveline was cutting her grass Friday morning when she was startled to see a fox standing near a lamp in her yard. Then she saw the animal bound down her driveway in the 6700 block of Main Street and scurry under a parked car across the street.

A Gloucester public works crew, doing patching work on Clements Avenue only yards away, grabbed their shovels and for the next 45 minutes or so frightened the fox to stay under the car until a Gloucester Animal Control officer could arrive. Deputy Jeff Stillman used a pole catcher with a noose to grab the fox, which administrative assistant/dispatcher Cheryl Johnson said was humanely put down.

The county workers—Derik Nelson, Brandon German and K. Burrell—also directed pedestrians and traffic around that area in front of the new Rev It Up Hot Rods shop trying to keep them from interacting with the fox. German said the owner of the car where the fox hunkered down was delayed from going to work because they didn’t want her...