Appreciation post: That time a squirrel brought down a whole bank system

I was installing a new alarm panel in a bank basement in downtown Portland back in 2018 when the power flickered and the whole thing went dead, took me two hours to trace the problem back to a squirrel chewing through the main feed line outside. Had to reroute the entire cable path through conduit and patch the exterior wall, which the branch manager was not happy about since he wanted a clean install for the grand reopening. Has anyone else had an animal cause this kind of chaos on a job, and how did you explain it to the customer without sounding like you were making it up?

2 comments

2 Comments

samjohnson9h ago

Squirrels are just furry little chaos agents with zero regard for deadlines. Your branch manager probably thought you were pulling his leg until he saw the chewed up wire himself.

martin.felix8h ago

Hang on @samjohnson, you're telling me a squirrel actually chewed through a wire that fast? I'm trying to picture that little guy just gnawing away while everyone's waiting on a deadline. That must have been a real mess to explain to the boss. I can just see the branch manager standing there holding a frayed cable and a tiny squirrel paw print.