We’ve all heard of tall tales and fish stories – but what about a duck tale? A South Bend Network crew now has a feathery tale to tell after rescuing several ducklings.

A mother duck was seen frantically pacing over a grate in downtown South Bend. Six ducklings had fallen through the grates and were stuck inside our transformer vault – which is part of I&M’s underground electrical network serving the city.

“We often don’t see ducks, let alone six ducklings, get trapped inside the downtown vaults,” said Jason Rodman, Network System supervisor for South Bend and Elkhart. “Our crew didn’t hesitate to help the ducks, which were calling for help in the vault. We are always ready and willing to respond – whether its restoring power after a storm or helping rescue ducklings.”

Tasked with saving the ducklings were network mechanics Tyler Smith, Tyler Schmitt and Alex White. They safely went down into the vault, wrangled the baby ducks and placed them into a bucket. The ducklings were placed in a safe spot, where hopefully their mom found them.