Deer Stuns Shoppers By Crashing Into Knightdale Store

By 10 p.m., the front door of Cato had been replaced and the store cleaned. There apparently was not much damage, just some rattled nerves.

The deer was rattled, too.

The store manager said she spotted the deer lying in the back of the store by the hat displays lying on the carpet. She said he was awake and breathing, but obviously stunned.

Everybody in the store was stunned, and a lot of them cleared out.

The deer got up, staggered into the lingerie section, knocked down a clothes rack and some shoes and made a mess of the floor. Animal control officers finally cornered the deer near the fitting rooms and shot it with tranquilizers.

"This is the biggest thing that's ever his Knightdale," hairdresser Carolyn Gower said.

Gower heard all the commotion next door and cut short her customer's appointment. She also managed to grab a souvenir, noticing that the deer had lost an antler.

"We all ran out the front," she said. "As I was looking down where all the glass was, I found (the antler). Pretty neat, huh?

"It (the antler) was just lying down there. I kind of picked it up and slipped it in my pocket and walked away."

Animal control officers took the deer away.

It was not known late Monday how badly hurt the deer was or what will become of it.