Deer Jumps Through Window Into Home

Not what you hope to find in your kid’s bedroom! On Oct. 9, 2007, this fawn jumped and somehow squeezed through a single window pane into a den before leaving a bloody mess through an Albany home.

It was about 5:45 p.m., and Matt Fox was loading some things in the car, getting ready to head to the ball fields with the kids when he heard his wife yell that there was a deer in the backyard.

That might not be an unusual circumstance for many of us these days, but Matt lives in Doublegate Country Club, well within the city limits of Albany.

“We’re in town. You wouldn’t expect to see a deer very often,” Matt said.

And he has a 6-foot privacy fence around the backyard.

“I looked through the gate, and there was a deer just standing there about 10 feet from the dog (a 75-lb. female lab),” Matt said.

Meanwhile, the kids came to the fence and were looking through at the deer, laughing and yelling.

The deer, a fawn that was out of spots and probably weighed about 50 pounds, suddenly ran and jumped right through a window, into the Fox’s living room.

“I couldn’t believe what I just saw,” Matt said. “My first reaction was, ‘That ain’t good.’”
Amazingly, the deer broke only one standard-sized window pane, somehow squeezing through the 8-inch by 10-inch space without even damaging the pane or even the glazing.

“The deer was spinning on our heart-pine floors. It couldn’t get a grip. Then it took off and disappeared toward the back of the house,” Matt said.

“I went into the house, shutting doors as I went. The deer was in the back bedroom, my daughter’s bedroom. It had cut its mouth on the glass, and there was blood just gushing. The deer started running back and forth through a bathroom that connected two bedrooms. There was blood on the walls, on the doors, everywhere. I finally got it shut in my son’s bedroom, and then I started calling everyone — the police, DNR, a vet. Finally after about 45 minutes the police show up, and they were going to shoot it. I was like, ‘No. I don’t want a bullet hole in the wall.’ We finally coaxed and wrestled the deer out a door, and off it went.

“It was an entertaining insurance claim,” he said.