Key Points
- A deer became stuck inside a Melbourne townhouse on Thursday.
- Two children took refuge upstairs while the stag was on the ground floor.
- Police were called but the stag made its escape.
"Stag in the house, blood everywhere", is the text message a Melbourne father is understood to have received from his children while at work on Thursday.
Alexander Hill referenced the text message in a post to his Facebook page where he shared a video with the opening shot showing blood on the floor in the entryway of his home overlaid with the words 'Oh Deer'.
The footage goes on to show a stag on the ground floor of his house, someone opening the front door and the animal making a run for it out the door, across a road and down an embankment of the Yarra River.
According to Victoria Police, whose officers were called out to the incident, a boy and a girl in their early teens were home at the time and took shelter upstairs on the first floor.
"The kids were initially panicked and screaming and what not because they didn't know what the noise was, so there had been a bit of commotion and noise," Sergeant Fabian Hitchens told SBS News.
He was one of the officers who attended the home in Alphington, which is about 9km northeast of the Melbourne CBD.
Sgt Hitchens admitted he'd never dealt with anything quite like it before.
A screenshot from the video Mr Hill posted showed the animal scrambling out of the house after the front door was opened from outside. Source: Facebook / Alexander Hill
"The deer's obviously seen its reflection in it, panicked, smashed it's way into the apartment and got stuck," he said.
Sgt Hitchens said a vet was called to the scene.
While potentially tranquilising the deer was discussed, it wasn't needed.
"They managed to get the front door open and I believe it just sort of ran out back into the bush," Sgt Hitchens said.
The video posted by Mr Hill shows the startled deer bolting from the home.
for a number of years.
