Not long ago, the police department in Brockport received a call from a frustrated family who had been struggling to remove a squirrel from their home. Typically, in situations like this, animal control officers or pest controllers are responsible for removing nuisance wildlife from homes. But in this situation, the Brockport Police decided “to go the extra mile” by removing the squirrel from the home themselves.
Once the police arrived at the home, they were told by the homeowner that the squirrel invader was first discovered eating cookies on the counter. After the family had made a few attempts to capture the squirrel themselves, they ultimately decided that such attempts were fruitless, as the squirrel easily jumped from one side of the room to another, where the rodent would continue to eat the family’s cookies. After some struggle, the cops succeeded in capturing the squirrel before releasing the rodent outside. However, the squirrel made several airborne leaps toward the officers. Luckily, nobody was hurt during this incident, not even the squirrel.
While squirrels can sometimes gain access to homes where they often eat sweet-tasting foods, squirrels can also cause problems on a much larger scale. For example, last fall, at least one squirrel brought down state government websites and cut off internet access for five and half hours. The squirrel managed to accomplish this by chewing through a fiber optic cable that provided residents with internet service through FirstLight, an albany based internet service provider. As it happens, squirrels are well known for their habit of eating through fiber optic cables. According to the Atlantic, one internet service provider claimed that squirrels were responsible for damaging up to 17 percent of their fiber optic cable lines. Unfortunately, there is no easy method of preventing rodent damage to power cables.
Have you ever found a squirrel within your home?
