LANSING, Mich. – What was the strangest thing that held you up or made you fall 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 (that wasn’t great). A few years ago my dad and I were on our way to the UP for his birthday when someone made a bomb threat that closed the Mackinac Bridge for several hours (that wasn’t great either).

Three years ago today, a truck carrying beehives crashed and overturned outside Charlevoix. Authorities said a large swarm of bees had been released and urged residents to avoid the area.

This is not the only time animals have blocked traffic in Michigan. Our story begins many years ago, in a time long forgotten: 1991.

Times were different then. It was the last year of the Cold War, the Internet was opened up for research and the first website was created, Nirvana released Nevermind, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was banned from assisting suicide, Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested, Clarence Thomas was appointed Supreme Court Justice and, most importantly, nearly 300 rodents occupied the Lansing airport.

On August 23, 1991, more than 250 gerbils and hamsters shipped from Mississippi escaped from their crates and scattered throughout the Capital Region International Airport.

Have you seen Die Hard 2? I imagine it was exactly like that.

“We found them at the other end of the airport,” said Barbara McWilliams, an airport employee at the time. “Many people took them home as pets.”

By the end of the day, about half of the rodents had been caught, but the rest probably made it into hiding places.

Realistically, they are probably long gone today. Lansing Airport underwent extensive renovations over the next 10 years and I’m sure the remaining nests were either relocated or removed.

And although the life expectancy of these little pets is only a few years, I like to imagine that there is a whole community that still lives in secret at the airport.

Have you seen Terminal? I imagine it’s exactly like that.

This was originally published in ClickOnDetroits Morning Report Newsletter. You can get Metro Detroit news, headlines, in-depth information and more delivered to your inbox every morning.