17 August 2023
A large section of a New Jersey town was without power for several hours — and utility officials said the cause was a fish dropped by a bird of prey.
Jersey Central Power and Light said crews working to restore power during the weekend outage discovered a fish had landed on a transformer, causing it to explode.
“The hypothesis is that a bird dropped it,” Sayreville Police Department Lt. James Novak told NJ Advance Media. “It just landed perfectly and destroyed the transformer.”
A Sayreville Police Department Facebook post featured a sketch of the feathered “suspect,” as well as a tongue-in-cheek memorial for the fish, dubbed Gilligan by the department.
“Please let us not forget the victim in this senseless death. Gilligan was a hard working family man. He was a father to thousands of children,” the post said.
The department said the “suspect was last seen flying south.”
“If you see him do not try to apprehend him. Although he isn’t believed to be armed he may still be very dangerous. If you have any information in this case please contact Det. John Silver who handles all of our fish cases,” the post said.
Ref; UPI News
