A shopper in a central Minnesota Wal-Mart wrestled a deer to the floor — in the pet aisle, of course — and held down the animal until it could be carried outside and set free, authorities said Wednesday.
Wadena wildlife wanderings: Shopper tackles deer in Wal-Mart pet aisle
The animal calmed down enough to be lassoed and returned to the great outdoors, police said.
May 18, 2017 at 2:54PM
The wild kingdom mayhem occurred about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the big-box store in Wadena, police said.
A photo of the man pinning down the deer was posted on Facebook and is attracting quite a bit of social media attention.
"I figured I was bigger than the deer, so I'd win that wrestling match," Tom Grasswick told WDAY-TV. Grasswick is from nearby Deer Creek, of course.
The animal calmed down enough to allow store employees to tie dog leashes to its legs before it was carried outside and freed, according to police.
Stephanie Koljonen, the shopper who posted the photo of the deer whisperer covering the animal's eyes in an effort to keep it from resisting, said, "We were shopping for dog dishes, and we were hearing something falling and a lady screaming."
Next thing Koljonen knew, she saw the deer sliding about on the smooth floor and then Grasswick pinning the animal against a bag of dog food.
Koljonen said the deer came in through the store's garden door, which is motion-activated, and "just walked down the aisle."
Police said neither the deer nor its human rescuers appeared hurt in the commotion.
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