The pesky rodent had taken up residence in a control box in the Wattenscheid area of Bochum, and managed to damage the cable just as rush hour traffic began on Tuesday afternoon, police in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia said. After the traffic light was knocked out, traffic started to back up on the nearby A40 autobahn.
Police directed traffic by hand until technicians found the source of the power outage. The were able to bring the light back to life, but the mouse had paid for its deed with death. Technicians said it suffered an electrical shock.