Where do a few moose stop on their stroll through a small Newfoundland city? Tim Hortons, of course.
At least that’s where St. John’s-resident Mark Mullaly saw them hanging out as he and his girlfriend drove through Mount Pearl on Thursday evening.
The 24-year-old first noticed a group of people peering over a fence near the dumpsters behind the local pet shop. His girlfriend pulled over the car so they could find out what everyone was looking at, and that’s when the couple spotted three moose on the other side of the fence.
Shortly after, the moose made their way to the nearby gas station and Tim Hortons drive-thru.
“It’s not my first time seeing moose so I wasn’t all too surprised but to see them in there, that was definitely exciting,” Mullaly told CTV News. “It definitely got a bit wild.”
“Moose on the loose” tends to be a pretty popular headline in Newfoundland, and officers with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary have experience escorting moose out of parking lots, and sometimes even suburban neighbourhoods. Still, it’s not every day you find them hanging out at a Tim Hortons (no matter what the stereotypes say).
Mullaly stayed safely in the passenger’s seat while he recorded a 10-second-long video of the animals walking directly in front of the glowing Tim Hortons sign. Then he and his girlfriend sat and watched the moose for another 20 minutes or so, while the parking lot filled with vehicles of others hoping to catch a glimpse of the coffee shop’s unexpected guests.
Another bystander who captured a video of the moose told CBC News that there were police officers trailing the animals’ movement as they slowly made their way through the city.
The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary later reported that the three moose were safely guided outside the city limits.
