The raccoon that rewired my night shift routine at the Port of Galveston

Last Tuesday around 2am a raccoon got into the control cabin and sat on the main throttle lever. It swung the boom right into a piling, bent the hydraulic line, and cost the company about $1,800 in repairs. Now I check the seals on every hatch before dusk, and I keep a can of cheap pepper spray on the dash. Anyone else had animals mess with their gear on the night run?

2 comments

2 Comments

finleyw9921d ago

Man that sucks hard. I feel for you, a raccoon wrecking a throttle at 2am is like peak night shift nightmare fuel. I had a possum get into a junction box once and it chewed through a bundle of wires, killed the whole generator for six hours. The pepper spray trick is smart, I started carrying a slingshot with rubber balls after a crow kept dive bombing my sensor rig. Hope the company didn't give you too much grief over the repair bill, cause it ain't like you invited the critter in.

anna_fox720d ago

Friend of mine @finleyw99 had a skunk crawl into his truck's cabin filter once and spray every time the fan kicked on... company made him pay for the ozone treatment, which felt pretty unfair since that's just nature doing nature things.