Squirrel Knocks Out Internet in Ohio County

An Ohio county has solved the mystery behind a weekend-long internet blackout: it turned out to be a squirrel, not a careless contractor as officials first suspected.

A Medina County official said a squirrel nesting inside part of the local fiber network chewed through lines on Feb. 20, knocking out phone and internet service for several government offices, including the prosecutor’s and auditor’s departments, according to Cleveland.com.

“It’s hard to make this stuff up,” County Administrator Matt Springer told Medina commissioners, according to UPI.

The county’s IT staff initially believed an underground fiber line had been severed by a contractor. But after tracing the break, they discovered the damage led to a squirrel nest inside the fiber infrastructure.

Crews spent the weekend replacing about 500 feet of fiber and installing new underground housing. Service was restored the evening of Feb. 22, and officials say they are working to strengthen protections to prevent similar outages in the future.