"Wild" North American raccoons here in their native range are also completely unafraid of people. Or even dogs. At least in urban areas. They basically "know" that they can't really be messed with, because it's not typically legal to shoot them, they have nasty teeth and claws, and they're ridiculously smart.
You aren't joking about them being unafraid of people. I was sitting out on my back deck one evening here in $RELATIVELY_BIG_CITY and had two adolescent racoons approach me and start engaging in playful behavior. One of them even ran up and snagged the slipper off my foot before I protested and it dropped it and ran away.
