I HAVEN'T been able to determine where these photos originated or who took them, but they don't appear to have been manipulated.
I'm not sure the same can be said of the mouse.
It is a fact that these diminutive rodents can squeeze themselves into very small spaces — through a crack the size of a dime, for example, according to some sources — so it's plausible that the wee beastie depicted above indeed managed to get himself stuck halfway-in or halfway-out of the slot of the ink toner cartridge of an HP Laserjet 1200 printer.
On the other hand, someone could have put him there.
We also don't know — because we don't dare trust the veracity of the anonymous author of the email — if the mouse actually survived the mishap. He doesn't appear to be dead, necessarily, but neither does he show even the slightest sign of movement between one photo and the next. We can hope, at least, that he made it out alive and uninjured.
If anyone does have reliable information about the origin or authenticity of these photos, please pass it along to urbanlegends@aboutguide.com and I will share it here.
Meredith writes:
I came across this article and although I do not know the origins, I am really not surprised that a mouse got caught in there. I had an Epson printer once and found that one day it didn't work. I examined the cartridges and all the internal workings, but didn't find anything wrong with it... until I found mouse droppings in all the various ink colors leading from my printer. I found it so funny, it was hard to be really mad that my printer no longer would print.
Chris writes:
While I can't verify the actual photos in question, I can without doubt say it is possible. I work in the office for a Carrot Farm in Western Australia. We have 2 HP Laserjet 1200 series printers and BOTH have suffered jams due to mice being trapped inside. Our mice were in the mechanism either side of the toner not the actual toner itself.
It does happen. We;ve had it happen 3 times in total.
PS: Our mice died! It was the smell that alerted us to the problem. Not nice.
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Sources and further reading:
Living with Urban Wildlife - Mice & Rats
From the Guelph Human SocietyEffective Control of Rats and Mice
Pest Management Regulartory Agency of Canada
Last updated: 02/22/10
