CANNON TOWNSHIP, MI — It was an average day for Lindsey Nowak until she heard a loud crash inside her home.

The Rockford-area resident assumed a mirror in the foyer had fallen down, but thought otherwise after loud shuffles and bangs filled the entryway. She ran upstairs to investigate and found a wild-eyed doe staring back at her.

"I opened the door, and it was a deer," Nowak said. "This is the sort of stuff I've only ever seen on TV."

The deer broke into a front window of the Nowak residence on Camino Del Ray Drive NE in Rockford at about 5:35 p.m. Thursday, May 30. Deputies from the Kent County Sheriff's Department and officials from the state Department of Natural Resources officials responded to the scene.

Nowak said the deer was large and got spooked once it was inside. She ran back to the basement and the deer followed. Once downstairs, the animal began trying to escape through a closed glass door that faces Lake Bella Vista.

Nowak said the deer's erratic behavior scared her.

The front window of the Rockford home that the deer broke into. Besides the broken glass and various blood stains from the deer's escape efforts, the animal's residential foray caused little damage.

"It was getting crazy — I ran and hid in the bathroom to call the sheriff," Nowak said. "My neighbor came down to help me, and she shimmied me out back when the deer wasn't looking."

The deer eventually calmed down and hid behind the family's pool table. After several attempts by authorities to coax the deer out of the home, the animal made its way out the glass door, which had been opened by authorities, jumped in the lake and swam away.

Karen Nowak, Lindsey's mother, arrived at the residence shortly after the deer left. Besides the broken window and blood spatters from where the deer attempted to escape, she said the damage was minimal, considering the circumstances.

Electronics and furniture that could have been ruined went largely untouched.

"We were really lucky, honestly," Karen Nowak said.

This isn't the first time a deer has had an unwelcome presence in a West Michigan residence. A similar scenario happened in November 2012, when a deer

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Email Lauren Gibbons at lgibbon1@mlive.com, and follow her on Twitter.

