[brid video=”417753″ player=”13623″ title=”Deer makes dramatic entrance into local barber shop “]
The gentlemen at Goodman’s Barber Shop on East 18th Street rarely turn away a customer. However, shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, barber Steve Philpott gladly held the door open and encouraged one individual to leave.
Philpott, fellow barber Terry Claypool and shop owner, Johnny Goodman all had customers in their chairs when a young deer came charging through the plate glass window of the storefront, almost knocking Philpott off of his feet.
“I was cutting hair with my back to the window, when — Bam!” Philpott said of the deer’s entrance.
He said he was unsure what the sound was at first, not knowing if it was a car or a stray bullet — or a deer.
“When you have something that hits you that fast,” Philpott said, ”you don’t have that much time to react.”
The deer cleared out Goodman’s work station where it stayed for several moments to gain its composure. Eventually, the deer got up and walked out of the shop while Philpott held the door open.
“He walked out the door, made a right-hand turn and headed to Burger King,” Philpott joked, adding that the Owensboro Police Department was called and responded down the street from the shop moments later.
Philpott said the plate glass where the deer entered was installed in 1958 and had never had more than a bird crash into it over the past 60 years.
“The scary part is the plate glass window and what could have happened,” Philpott said. “There was a little excitement — but the most important thing was nobody was hurt.”
As to what brought the deer in town to the shop, Philpott ventured to guess that the recent rain was responsible for flushing wildlife from their home.
This is the second sighting of a deer within city limits in the last two weeks.
While Thomas Young, private land biologist for the Green River Region of Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, said he could not offer an explanation for why there had been two deer sightings in town recently, he did justify the time of year.
“We do have a relatively high density for deer in Daviess County, but, compared to other counties, it is not the highest by any means for the state,” Young said. “This time of year can be a little different for deer and their habitat while farmers are working their fields.”
Young said the deer move around a lot more in the spring than they do in February and that May is the month that fawns are typically born, causing them to look for safe harbor. Though, he added, city streets and businesses do not offer that.
“While it does happen on occasion, there’s no rhyme or reason why two would show up in the city,” Young said.
