Deer leads police on chase through N.J. elementary school


New Jersey police were sent on a wild, caught-on-camera chase after a deer smashed into an elementary school on the night of Black Friday.

A man who was walking his dog called the Toms River Police Department around 10 p.m. on Nov. 24 after he saw the deer break through a window and run into Cedar Grove Elementary School, NBC Philadelphia reported.

Police said officers were able to find the deer quickly in a stairwell, according to NBC Philadelphia, but they couldn’t catch it as it took off running down the hallway and into a classroom.

Police body camera footage posted Thursday to Instagram showed the deer — which officers aptly named Rudolph — jumping on a bookshelf in the classroom and scattering items everywhere as officers helplessly tried to wrangle it.

Eventually, the officers were able to use a dog snare to guide Rudolph to a rear door so it could exit the school, according to NBC Philadelphia. Police said the deer didn’t seem to be seriously hurt.

The deer was seen running north away from the school once outside in the bodycam footage posted by police — “maybe toward the North Pole,” police told NBC Philadelphia.