Folks in Toronto who were left without power on Thursday, February 1, can thank a rascally raccoon for the inconvenience.
Reuters reports that thousands of people in downtown Toronto were left without power, with Utility Hydro One blaming the incident on a raccoon who got into the electrical equipment. The disruption knocked out traffic lights and even caused some folks to get stuck in elevators.
Overall, about 7,000 people were in the dark for about three hours due to the raccoon’s mischief, but unfortunately the animal paid for it. A spokesperson for Utility Hydro One says the raccoon did not survive.
Apparently, animals causing electrical problems is nothing new. A think tank called Electricity Canada reports that squirrels are the animals most likely to cause an outage, with raccoons in second and birds just behind them.