Nightly Visitors

So I have many pictures to post but first thing is first...The most exciting!
We've had nightly visitors, visiting our garbage cans. We have the kind of garbage cans that have lids. Well, in nights past, I have heard animals rummaging through the garbage but have been to lazy/scared to see what kind of animal it is. So, last night John was home and I told him whatever animal was down there must be pretty big because it had taken off the lids to the garbage can (they have a distinct sound when thrown on the ground). I said will you come with me to see what it is. He said "sure". To our surprise it was a racoon! Not one but two! One was probably a male because he was huge, the other was really small and probably a female. The big one had taken off the lid and thrown in to the ground and was in the garbage can. We didn't realize there were two until the second one came right up to the door and stuck it's nose in the door. I freaked out because I knew racoons are pretty mean tempered animals. John slammed the door shut to see if they would take off because we didn't want a mess of our garbage in the drive way. THEY DIDN'T EVEN SHUTTER!! It's like they were so used to humans they didn't care we were there. I ran to get my camera because they were literally right next to us. Sorry for the bad picture but I didn't want to open the door to much because they could've come in. So, now we know what animal is making all the noise in the garbage. In the past we've also seen a possum that wouldn't get out. John tried to shake the garbage can around to make it get out before he brought it to the curb. We hope he got out before the garbage trucks came. If not, poor little guy, he was just too comfortable in our disgusting trash. Anyone know of a good way to keep racoons and other critters out of your garbage? Lids do not seem to be working.