When PG&E workers realized the animal was sitting on the line, they shut off the power, said company spokesman Jeff Smith.
Here, however, the company — and thousands of customers who needed electricity — were unlucky: The raccoon was licking its paws on the piece of equipment that shuts down electric flow.
“That meant we had to go to a bigger one down the line,” Smith said.
Instead of 200 or 300 customers, about 6,600 houses and shops in Pebble Beach, Pacific Grove and Monterey’s Cannery Row were in the dark, he said.