When this Texas police officer promised to protect and serve, he had no idea that would mean potential run ins with zombie deer on the side of the road.
Most of us have seen plenty of dead animals on the side the road. It’s an unfortunate side effect of being car dependent, and having roadways that weave through wildlife areas. Some people reading this may have even experienced hitting an animal while driving. Sometimes there’s really nothing you can do to avoid it.
Carcasses on the road even have a creative name assigned to them: Roadkill. And if you’ve ever wondered where the roadkill goes, police officers are often tasked with either moving the deceased creatures off to the shoulder (if they are in the middle of the road and could cause traffic disturbances), or communicating with other municipal or state entities to come and retrieve and dispose.
This East Texas deputy was driving along at night in Trinity County when he spotted a dead doe that was partially resting in the roadway. He pulled over to the side of the road, put his squad car in park, and got out to investigate the “dead” deer. The only problem was… the doe wasn’t actually dead.
Though it was likely hit by something (deer don’t normally take naps on the side of the road), the impact evidently didn’t kill the animal. It might have just stunned it for a bit, because when the officer approached the doe, it sprung up and ran off. The brave officer kept his cool, pointed his flashlight at the animal as it ran off, and radioed in that cleanup was no longer necessary.
JUST KIDDING! He let out a blood-curdling scream and ran back to the safety of his vehicle:
“East Texas deputy’s scream goes viral after ‘dead’ deer suddenly springs to life.”
@12newsnowThis Trinity County deputy was dead wrong when he thought that was a dead doe.
Honestly… I can’t say that I would have handled the situation any better. That truly is a rattling and unexpected experience. We’d all like to think we wouldn’t have screamed, but let’s be honest. If any of us approached a deer that was presumed dead, only for it to jolt back to life and run away, we’d all scream our heads off.
The video is great, especially because you can hear the officers having a good laugh afterwards. And the social media world has gotten in on the laugh too. They left these comments below the now viral video:
“And he’s our emergency contact.”
“For a second he needed 911, and then he locked in and remembered he’s 911.”
“Welp… he will never live this one down.”
“They’ll play this audio every time he walks into roll call.”
“I would’ve done the same exact thing if a deer came back to life in front of me.”
“I’m glad he didn’t overreact.”
