Local hero saves doe deer's life at motel 10/22/14.

[AQUAMAN]

Thanks to the self sacrifice of Chief Barnett today about 1:30 pm, an nonpaying guest at the Viking Arms motel was promptly given the exit card, and kicked out. Article and video follows below. Quick thinking and bravery appear to be in style again, thanks Chief. 

A doe that crashed through a window and was trapped inside a motel room at the Viking Arms motel was assisted by Ludington Police and the U.S. Forest Service today.

About 1:30 p.m. police responded to a report of a deer trapped in a bathroom of one of the motel rooms. Ludington Police Officer Jake Miller, Ludington Police Chief Mark Barnett and USFS Officer Doug Berringer responded to the scene. After discussing how best to resolve the situation, Barnett decided that the other two officers could block traffic while he helped usher the deer out of the room. Barnett said it took a few tries to get the door open, but once he did, the deer decided to make a run for it out of the room. The deer appeared to make a safe crossing toward Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital. 

http://www.shorelinemedia.net/ludington_daily_news/news/local/artic...

[XLFD]

I believe I drove by the area when they were preparing to block the street; I saw Aaron Sailor out with another officer on Jackson Street near Rite-Aid.  Sailor was looking a bit miffed, probably because he wasn't able to use the taser, nightclub, or service revolver in the situation. 

I hear that the doe was planning on throwing a stag party, but maybe next time she should shell out a few bucks to the Viking Arms' owners.

[Johnny]

I am confused about the Officer Sailor comment.  I am unaware of Officer Sailor carrying around night club?  Is he a bar owner?  Service revolver? That' funny, I wasn't aware of us living back in the old west days and having LE officers carrying revolvers.  I believe the article says Officer MILLER not Sailor as well.  

While all of us hard working citizens of this great city are at working to support our families (and others families who live off of us hard working citizens) Tommy is there on scene to bring us this big news story for the day.  Maybe if you worked as hard at finding a job as you do bashing the city, the city employees and having the city write you checks for silly lawsuits, maybe people who give you a sliver of respect. 

[XLFD]

I apologize for my slang use of the word nightclub; that was what we colloquially called black billy clubs back in the 'hoods of Scottville.  Me bad for the confusion. 

Service revolvers are out of fashion and not normally distributed by police agencies since the 1990s, but Aaron Sailor's rich police brutality history makes me think he's the type of officer that may still have one to make him feel like "Dirty Harry". 

Other than that, you will notice that Aquaman pointed out this 'big news story' and that my introduction of Aaron Sailor was his part in the proceedings as traffic control up at Jackson Street with another officer, I'm presuming they had another couple officers on the Staffon Street side. 

As always, I thank you for your concern with my occupational history, and your concern that the City of Ludington is using their money unwisely.

[Willy]

Hey Johhny, why don't you go suck on an egg and crap out a chicken because that's about all your opinion's are worth when you come on here and belittle posters.

[Willy]

I hope someone recorded this on video. I would like to see this

[XLFD]

In the shoreline link at the bottom of the thread head, they do have a short video.

[XLFD]

Heather Lynn Peters did a more extensive job on this story in the Muskegon Chronicle yesterday:

Police chief: A deer walks into a hotel bathroom ...

LUDINGTON, MI – It sounds like the tail-end of a joke, but when Ludington Police Department Chief Mark Barnett uttered these words, "The deer was in the bathroom with the door shut," he wasn't kidding.

Ludington Police Department officers and a federal forestry official were sent to the 900 block of East Ludington Avenue around 1:35 p.m. on Wednesday after they received a complaint about a doe stuck inside the Viking Arms Inn.

"We had never run into a situation where a deer was stuck in the bathroom. That was a little odd," Barnett said.

Barnett met the other officers at scene after learning the deer had "jumped into a closed window of a hotel room and was stuck in the bathroom."

"Inside the motel room were two beds and in the far right corner there is a bathroom sink. There were deer snot marks on the bathroom mirror above the sink," he said. "To my left, there was a door that closes off the toilet and shower. The deer was in the bathroom with the door shut."

Realizing they had a unique situation on their hands, Barnett said the officers took a few minutes to "formulate a plan."

"We would stop traffic on Ludington Avenue – U.S. 10 -- and if we could get the deer out of the bathroom, she would run off into a wooded area," he said.

And that's basically how it happened. The door was finally opened and the deer made a run for it, Barnett said.

"The deer ran out of the motel room and across U.S. 10 and into a ribbon of woods that skirts the west side of Spectrum Heath Ludington's hospital campus," he said.

"She ran just to the west of that. We intentionally stopped traffic so the deer could make it across and it wouldn't cause an accident."

Judging by the amount of blood in the room, it was obvious the deer had sustained some wounds, but officers felt it was best to give her a chance to recover.

"She was cut, but she ran fine and it seemed everything was OK. But she was hurting. There was a fair amount of blood in the hotel," he said. "The other option was to somehow gain control of her to euthanize her. But if she is able to survive, that would be great."

So just how did the deer end up in the motel room bathroom?

Barnett figures she just wanted to be as far from people as possible. Perhaps she just wanted a little privacy, he said.

"She knew just where she didn't want to be. When she was in the room, she found a place to be. The door got shut behind her and she was really struck," he said.

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/10/deer_crashed_t...

[Willy]

I'm sure this will hit the national news. There are many stories of deer entering buildings but how many get locked in a bathroom. I wonder if it was the same deer I photographed walking across Ludington Ave. She seemed right at home walking around town and strolling right down the sidewalks.

http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/photo/little-lady-taking-a-walk?co...