MEDFORD, N.J. (WPVI) — Brian Carns woke up to the sound of glass breaking around 6 a.m. Monday in his Medford, New Jersey home.
“I thought that somebody threw a brick through my window and now they came in,” he said.
There was an intruder, alright.
“I went and grabbed my phone because nobody’s going to believe this,” he said.
Cellphone video shot by Brian shows a young buck that had crashed through his living room window.
“He was lying by the door, and he gets up and he starts to run around,” said Brian.
“When I look at him I’m just confused. I have no idea. All I’ve heard so far is glass – and he’s in the house.”
Brian – having grown up around farm animals – starts to think about how he can get this scrambling, panting deer out of his house.
“We do have a goat that has a horn, and whenever it messes with me, I grab his horn and that’s it, it’s game over,” he said. “I thought, ‘Why not grab him by his antler and then pull him out the rear door of my house and let him out into the backyard?'”
And with that, the deer was free.
While we don’t hear about deer home invasions very often, we spoke with a wildlife expert who says situations like this are pretty common.
“They see a window or a screen door as a possible way to get away from whatever it is that they’re being chased by,” said Professor Gerald Hough from Rowan University.
The wildlife biologist says deer may see darkness on the other side of window as an opening and – as in this case – end up trapped.
“It’s probably pretty stunned, it’s not used to being in a residential house and so trying to get him out, best thing you can usually do is call your local wildlife control,” said Hough.
He says you can also do what Brian did – you don’t necessarily need to grab it by the antlers – but you can try to lead the animal to an open door.
Brian says the last he saw of the deer – it made it across the street into a wooded area and seemed uninjured. He’s hoping it stays there for a good while.
Copyright © 2025 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.