Bull in a china shop? Buck in a laundromat? What’s the difference really?
While all of these deer hunters are sitting out in tree stands waiting for bucks to walk by, the antlered animals are too busy crashing their way into laundromats. This young whitetail buck in North Carolina got into a bit of trouble earlier this week when it inexplicably ran and jumped at full sprint speed into a laundromat’ front window.
He also did some damage on the way in too, and left one woman laying on the ground presumably in pain and undoubtedly in a ball of serious confusion.
It was a normal day at The Wishy Washy Laundry in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Customers were taking care of their clothes and what not, and the front window was very much in-tact. Why would that be in question, right? Well… for some unknown reason, a runaway deer had the idea to jump right through the glass, and it didn’t care what was in its way.
Security camera footage captured a young buck first taking down a woman in the parking lot. That was honestly the worst of the encounter, in my opinion. The deer came out of nowhere, and sent her flying into the side of her own car. As she laid on the asphalt, wondering what just happened, the wild animal continued its chaos.
The front glass stood no chance as the deer jumped right through it, and those within the laundromat scattered out of the way as the startled deer sprinted around and jumped up on top of machines. Corey Pendergrass, the owner of The Wishy Washy Laundry, told WRAL that nothing like this has ever happened before:
“Like a deer coming through the business, what in the world? Who has to deal with this? One in a million chance of something like this. You don’t expect this to happen.”
Though you don’t expect it to happen, deer do have a knack for recklessly flying through windows of businesses. Some restaurant goers in Tennessee once got the surprise of a lifetime when a deer came crashing through the front glass and running amuck, and a couple of years back, an antlered white-tail didn’t let the front window stop him from barreling into a lingerie store.
For some reason, it happens more than you think, and thanks to security camera footage, it’s often caught on camera:
“A deer collided with a woman in a North Carolina parking lot before crashing through a laundromat window and running through the store.”
As you saw, the deer eventually exited the building the same way that it entered. So that was a silver lining to the story… the laundromat owner only had to replace one of the windows. And if you were wondering if everyone – including the woman out front of Wishy Washy Laundry – was okay, Pendergrass says no one was injured during the deer’s rampage run:
“It was nonsense, and it was just a miracle that no one got hurt. So we’re very thankful for that.”
It really is a miracle that no one was injured.
The woman that was hit by the deer in the parking lot apparently got up, brushed herself off, and then drove away. That’s the most miraculous thing that occurred, by far. Something tells me she’s gonna end up letting someone else take laundry duty for a while.
I can’t imagine just trying to get my colors and whites in order, only for a wild animal to come out of nowhere and shoulder check me.
Deer & Urban Sprawl
As urban sprawl pushes deeper into natural habitats, white-tailed and mule deer have transformed from elusive forest dwellers into highly successful suburban residents. Rather than being displaced by concrete and cul-de-sacs, deer have adapted to heavily exploit these environments, creating complex challenges for both wildlife managers and homeowners.
Suburban landscapes offer a year-round, artificially maintained food source. Irrigated lawns, fertilized ornamental shrubs, hostas, and backyard gardens provide high-nutrient diets that are often vastly superior to the forage available in a crowded, competitive winter forest.
And one of the most important factors? It’s completely safe. Apex predators like bears, wolves and mountain lions are largely pushed out of suburban zones, and local municipal ordinances strictly prohibit the discharge of firearms, effectively eliminating the deer’s two primary population controls.
The most dangerous and costly consequence of this overlap is the massive spike in deer-vehicle collisions. Because deer must constantly navigate fragmented habitats cut by busy commuter roads, winter evening rush hours perfectly align with their peak movement times, resulting in billions of dollars in annual vehicle damage and significant human injury. Disease is more prevalent, and hunting is far less, but overall, it’s a great place to live for a deer.
Of course, while rather rare, the other implication is interactions like this one that we saw in North Carolina this week.
