Deer Crashes Through Door,

Rampages At Cooperstown Bat

By SAM ALDRIDGE • for www.AllOTSEGO.com

COOPERSTOWN – The Cooperstown Bat Co. usually doesn’t take customers before 9 a.m., a policy that was forcefully circumvented at 7 a.m. Thursday when a fully grown buck smashed through the front door at 118 Main St.

“I thought I heard something moving around inside the store,” said Chris Miller, the Bat Company’s graphic designer and engraver. He was the first to reach the store that morning, entering via the back door, from where he could see that the entrance was in complete disarray.

As he opened the door, the animal barreled past him toward the office, said Miller, who promptly stepped out and locked the door, trying to register what had just happened.

Before long, police arrived, mistakenly thinking a burglary was underway instead of a frightened and disoriented animal crashing around the premises. The deer, guilty of forced entry, had cut itself on the broken glass, leaving a trail of blood through the store.

“He definitely left his mark,” said Miller. Apart from the front door and a dented wall, nothing else was seriously damaged.

Miller is glad that the rest of the store is fine, but has said that he might look at getting Shatterproof Windows and better doors to avoid something like this happening again – although who would have expected a deer to come into your store this way?

Reaching the basement, the deer managed to push open the back door and take its dramatic exit. Though the incident created some buzz around town, Miller said the store was cleaned up by 10 a.m., the glass of the front door replaced by 2 p.m., and everything went back to business as usual.

The Cooperstown Bat’s twitter page reported, “Our bats are so hot, even the deer have heard the buzz. They’re crashing through our door.”