Oh, deer! Surprise customer breaks into Moorhead, Minn., butcher shop
A year into her new butcher business, Melissa Evans finally felt like things were falling into place after a busy season.
She was packaging burger meat on Saturday in her north Moorhead shop, called She Said, when a booming crash came from the sales floor.
Evans couldn’t believe her eyes: A deer had ran straight through the glass door.
You read that right: A white-tailed deer.
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“When she came through that door, it was – a bomb exploded,” Evans said. “My feet were glued to the floor and I'm pretty sure my jaw was right there next to them.”
Glass went everywhere. Her 12-year-old daughter, Max, saw the deer first and began screaming, “Why is there a deer in here?!” In classic Bambi fashion, the deer fumbled into a wall and tried to escape through the window.
“I still had no idea what to do. I'm not gonna wrestle a deer in the middle of the store. But fortunately, she left out the front door and didn't cause too much damage in her wake. But definitely a lot of clean up,” Evans said. “I mean, there wasn't one square foot of the store where you're not stepping on glass.”
After the deer left, Evans realized her indoor security camera caught the entire thing on video. She posted it on the She Said Facebook page, where it immediately drew reactions and media attention.
As she was cleaning up, she was bombarded with media requests to use and talk about the video.
“I never want to go viral again,” Evans said, laughing.
Evans lost out on a day of business to clean and put up a temporary door. There were no customers in the store at the time and nobody was injured. Evans thinks the deer is likely OK as there wasn’t any blood in the building or outside.
A replacement door should come within two months and a friend is fixing relatively minor drywall damage, so the financial hit isn’t looking as bad as it could have been.
“In hindsight, everything is great: There's a hole in the wall; there's a hole in the door. Nobody got hurt; the [meat] cases weren’t damaged,” Evans said. “She could have taken somebody out, no problem.”
It’ll take some time to catch up on orders, but then comes the calm after the storm.
“Just keep plugging away, head down and barrel through like a deer,” Evans said.
The shop, which Evans says is the first butcher shop in Moorhead owned and operated by a woman, opened December 2021 and that winter made for a slow start.
Evans said last summer was a “whirlwind” of a season, followed by a construction lull and the recent holiday frenzy. January and February are tough retail months, she said, so this flurry of social media attention is a plus.
“So this is a really good way for people to know that I'm here, and to be able to come out when times are slow when it's cold outside,” Evans said.
Adding temporary extra weekend hours, the shop has reopened its doors for business. Disclaimer: That only applies to humans this time.