LANSING, Mich. – What’s the weirdest thing that delayed you or put you behind on something?
A friend of mine once had a hot air balloon land on the road in front of him. I got hit by a truck tire on 696 (it wasn’t great). A few years ago, my dad and I were heading up to the U.P. for his birthday and someone called in a bomb threat that closed the Mackinac Bridge for several hours (also wasn’t great).
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Three years ago today, a truck hauling bee hives crashed and overturned outside Charlevoix. Authorities said it released a large swarm and urged residents to avoid the area.
It’s not the only time some animals disrupted Michigan travel. Our story begins years ago, in a long-forgotten time: 1991.
It was a different time back then. It was the last year of the Cold War, the internet was released outside research and the first website was created, Nirvana released Nevermind, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was barred from assisting in suicides, Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested, Clarence Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court and, most importantly, nearly 300 rodents took over the Lansing airport.
On Aug. 23, 1991, more than 250 gerbils and hamsters that were being shipped from Mississippi chewed their way out of their boxes and spread across the Capital Region International Airport.
Have you seen Die Hard 2? I imagine it was exactly like that.
“We’ve found them clear in the other end of the airport,” said then-airport-employee Barbara McWilliams at the time. “A lot of people have been taking them home as pets.”
By the end of the day, about half of the rodents were captured, but the rest were believed to have made it to hiding spaces.
Realistically, they’re probably long gone today. The Lansing airport saw significant renovations over the next 10 years and I’m sure what remaining nests were either relocated or cleared out.
And while the lifespan of these tiny pets is only a few years, I’d like to imagine there’s an entire community that still lives in secret at the airport.
Have you seen The Terminal? I imagine it’s exactly like that.
This originally was published in ClickOnDetroit’s Morning Report Newsletter. You can get Metro Detroit’s news, headlines, deep dives and more in your inbox every morning.
