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Deer wanders into small town grocery store to mingle with locals

Deer in grocery store Photo courtesy of Alycia Hoffman

This year, we’ve seen plenty of deer getting into trouble. First, there was Hammy, the buck with a hammock stuck in his antlers. Next, there was the deer who adorned himself in Christmas lights. And let’s never again mention the deer who was proven to be eating human remains.

But the latest deer to go viral was doing something most of us do several times a month: hitting up the local grocery store.

This just happened at the Aldi in Chippewa(For licensing or usage, contact licensing@viralhog.com)

Posted by Alycia Hoffman on Sunday, December 3, 2017

The deer was spotted in an Aldi grocery store in Chippewa Township. It’s unclear how the animal got into the store in the first place, but a video taken by resident Alycia Hoffman shows it wandering the aisles among the other shoppers. While clearly disoriented by these foreign surroundings, the deer remains quite calm and begins searching methodically for an exit — an experience familiar to any of us who have found ourselves trapped in crowded shops this holiday season.

Hoffman told CBS that when she saw the deer, she knew she had to preserve the moment on film. “I thought it was really cute. I was really excited and nobody pulled out their phones, so I pulled out my phone.”

She also said there was more to the story than what the video showed. Apparently, right before coming into the store, the deer had been hit by a car, and it had a slightly bloody leg. Hoffman believes it was in shock. Eventually, it went to the front of the store and lay down, and the police were called.

“I stayed with it because I was so worried they were going to put it down because its leg was bloody,” Hoffman said. “It eventually stood up and some guy went inside and got some apples, and they were feeding it apples in the parking lot.”

Fortunately, the police deemed the deer to be in good health overall, and they helped it find its way back to its natural habitat. They led it to the woods, and it soon found a deer trail and wandered off.

According to Hoffman, the event brought a little extra holiday cheer to the store. “It’s cute. It is a little Christmas miracle,” she said. “It’s so close to the holiday and there’s reindeer walking around Aldi’s.”

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