Wild deer joins shoppers inside grocery store

PALM HARBOR - He walked into the Publix in Palm Harbor the way the rest of us do -- through the front door. Except this shopper had no money and no shopping list, just four little antlers growing on the top of his head.

"I had my back turned I saw the deer coming toward me and it shot into the store," recalled shopper Joel Sheets.

It happened at the Publix at the corner of East Lake and Tampa roads around 1 o'clock Wednesday afternoon.

Several Publix employees wrapped the deer and towels and butcher's aprons until members of the Suncoast Animal League arrived.

"He was pretty calm when we got here. He had the towel over the head, which makes him a lot calmer. By the time we got here he was pretty laid back," said Erica Hinz, who helped in the rescue.

After being carried out of the store, the deer was brought to a near by wooded area and released.

"We'll monitor him," offered the league's Rick Chaboudy. "I'll go back out there tonight to see if he's in the same area and then again tomorrow morning, but it seems like it will be a happy ending."

A happy ending with a question: How did a deer end up inside a Publix in the middle of the day?

Simple, said Chaboudy. It's mating season and this time of year, "deer go crazy."