8-pt. buck tears up home in terrifying experience for former Harlanite

Katie (Poepsel) Reed, formerly of Harlan and now a resident of Spring, TX, had the misfortunate of having an eight-point buck enter her home. Below is the story from the Montgomery County Courier, Spring, TX.

 

Video available at:

http://www.yourconroenews.com/neighborhood/woodlands/news/article/8-poin...

It's a story so bizarre that when Katie Reed tells about her face-to-face encounter with an eight-point buck earlier this month, she has to follow up with photos to prove the horrifying three-hour ordeal was all too real.

"I had one foot in my car. He bumped me into the car and I was kicking him in the chest," Reed said as she recounted the story. "Now I realize the poor thing was just as scared as me."

As Reed was preparing to leave for work the morning of Nov. 2, she walked to her garage, opened the garage door and started getting into her car. Reed and her family have lived in the home near Richard Road in South Montgomery County for 22 years. The home, she said, backs up to a wooded area.

But as she was getting into her small sports car, the large deer ran into the garage trapping Reed in her car. The buck, she said, tried several times to get in the car but was too large.

"I heard this commotion and here was this eight-point buck that had run in. I thought it was charging me," she said. "It was trying to get in my car; but because my car is so low, it's head kept hitting my car.

"My face and his face were 10 inches apart."

The buck then leaped over the car, giving Reed an opportunity to get out of the garage.

"Thinking it was attacking me, I quickly shut the car door and squealed out of the garage," said Reed, adding that she opened the other garage door hoping the buck would run out. "I got all the way to the end of the driveway because I didn't want it to come out charging me.

"He didn't come out, and I thought, 'Oh my God, where is it?'"

Reed ran into her house and began looking to see if the buck had exited the garage. However, she soon realized the door at the bottom of the game room stairs was open and the buck had run up the stairs.

"From the safety of my home, I could see this darn eight-point buck on the landing," said Reed, noting the door to the game room was closed trapping the buck on the stairs.

The terrified buck was unable to maneuver down the stairs and a mirror on the wall of the landing only added to the chaotic situation.

"This darn buck, not only was he scared, he thought there was another buck up there," she said. "It kept thrashing about. The mirror wasn't broken, but there are holes on either side of it.

"I just panicked."

Reed called animal control but learned animal control officers don't deal with deer.

"Then I just called 911," she said.

Within minutes, a deputy with the Precinct 3 Constable's Office arrived. "By this time, my neighbor had come out because he heard me screaming."

When deputies arrived, they worked to save the deer, in spite of a bloody mess already spread throughout the game room and stairwell as the buck had severely injured itself thrashing about.

"Our attempts to get the deer to come back down didn't work," said Lt. Scott Furches, with Precinct 3, adding the game warden was called to help with the situation.

"The deputy said, 'In my 30 years, I have never seen anything like this,'" she said. "The poor thing was up there for about three hours."

Once the game warden arrived and realized the deer had suffered major injuries from thrashing around and hitting the walls, he made the decision to euthanize it.

"The game warden asked if I wanted to process it," she said. "I said, 'No, I've had enough deer for a lifetime."

 
 

 

Harlan Newspapers

1114 7th Street
P.O. Box 721
Harlan, IA 51537-0721

(800) 909-6397
news2@harlanonline.com

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