Playing opossum is not always a good thing to do.

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JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. (AP) — A baby opossum’s instinct to play dead evidently didn’t help matters after it got wedged inside a soda machine at a upstate New York fitness club.

The animal ran into the Court Jester Athletic Club in Johnson City, N.Y., near Binghamton, and scurried behind a soda machine in the front vestibule Wednesday evening.

The club’s assistant manager called police realizing the critter was stuck inside, hanging upside down in a compartment below the soda dispenser.

A police officer tried to pull the animal from the bottom of the machine, but it was lodged in place and making no apparent move to escape.

About a half hour later, an employee arrived with a key for the machine, the front panel was opened and the animal rescued.

The officer released it in a nearby cemetery.

-- Robin Palmer