A deer took shopping to a whole new level Wednesday, Oct. 10, when it wandered through the front door at Best Buy in Novi.

“It seems like a lot of people couldn’t believe it,” said Erin Ellison, an employee team leader who stood 5 feet from the animal as it walked into the store on Haggerty near Eight Mile at approximately 12:30 p.m. She said a co-worker described it as a six-point buck.

“We wear head sets and one employee on the head set said, ‘there’s a deer in the store.’ One of our managers was thinking that was a code word for something and then it went by and we said, ‘oh no, it’s an actual deer.’”

Ellison said the buck veered to the left, headed toward the customer service area, and ended up in the appliance department at the back of the store where it knocked over a boxed vacuum. She said it likely was frightened but “didn’t really run,” as it moved toward the exit.

“It was probably the safest place in the store for it to go to,” she said. “The floor is tiled and it couldn’t really grip the floor, so it wasn’t running into customers or employees. It was sliding a bit.”

Meanwhile, customers and workers were moved into an employee break room near the front of the store. A shopper in the microwave area was shielded behind a counter.

Moving it out

Team leaders used store merchandise in the appliance area to barricade the deer and move it slowly toward the carpeted exit area where the store’s operations manager held the door open. Ellison said the deer was in the store for approximately 10 minutes.

“I don’t think anyone was scared because the team did a great job making sure customers and employees were safe. I think it was just a shock factor,” Ellison said. “Using the training we have on safe behaviors and being safe, we knew what we needed to do and we just made it happen.”

The store called the Novi Police Department and officers arrived just as the deer left the building. Officers took an incident report. No one was injured and there were no damages.

Det. Kevin Gilmore quipped “We’re not seeking charges against the deer.”

Contact Sharon Dargay at sdargay@hometownlife.com.