Deer crashes through apartment window

By Journal Times staff

Monday, June 5, 2006 8:58 PM CDT

By Dustin Block and Scott Anderson RACINE - Jerry Falkner woke up Monday morning to the sound of breaking glass.

"I heard glass breaking and I thought someone was breaking in," he said. "The next thing I know, a deer is running toward my room."

The deer crashed through one of his Jacato Drive apartment windows, waking up the residents. They came out of their bedroom, saw the deer, and closed themselves back in. The deer ran into the bathroom, and they locked it inside. They didn't know their pit bull, Shadow, was in the bathroom with the deer when they closed the door.

In the bathroom, the deer kicked on the water, flooding the apartment and forcing authorities to shut off power and water to the building. The dog was knocked unconscious for at least 10 minutes. It has a serious injury to its eye, along with other injuries, but was later wagging its tail and moving under its own power.

Police arrived and, with the apartment residents' help, were able to get the dog out of the bathroom, leaving the deer confined. Officers from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources then tranquilized the 1-year-old doe and took it away.

Racine Police Officer Victor Cera said the deer was apparently lying down behind the apartment building when it was spooked by dogs let out of a kennel. Falkner believes the doe came through the window to elude chidren who cornered it near two 7-foot-high fences behind the apartment.

Cera, who responded to the call, said he has seen quite a lot while on the job, but nothing quite like this.

"In the 16 years that I've been doing this, I've seen all kinds of stuff, but this is probably the most bizarre," he said.

The deer laid waste to the Falkners' bathroom and caused flooding in the apartment that left it temporarily uninhabitable.

As bad as it was, Falkner said it could have been a whole lot worse.

"Imagine if it would have been this window," he said as he pointed to the window of a nearby room where his children, ages 6 and 5, were asleep at the time of the doe's visit. "After this incident, it makes me think it's safer to stay on the second floor than the first floor."

Falkner's children made it safely to school, and the family was offered alternative living arrangements until their apartment could be fully repaired.

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