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DENTON, N.C. (WGHP) — About a thousand people lost power, and it turns out a snake is to blame.

Duke Energy reports that more than 1,400 customers were without power as of about 10 a.m. Wednesday.

A Duke Energy spokesperson said they’ve gotten to the bottom of it.

The outage was caused by a snake that came into contact with Duke Energy equipment in a nearby substation.

“This is one of the reasons we are making electric grid improvements in the region,” said Duke Energy Spokesperson Jeff Brooks. “We often think of storms and trees which are the leading cause of outages, but other items like cars hitting utility poles and snakes and squirrels getting into equipment also cause a number of outages for electric utilities. That’s why it’s so important we make these improvements to strengthen our electric grid and protect it from a variety of disruptions.”