More bang for the buck; deer breaks into Wapak bank

WAPAKONETA - A downtown bank received an unwanted deposit from an unlikely customer Monday afternoon.

Employees reported hearing a crash and a commotion in the lower level of the Fifth Third Bank, 10 W. Auglaize St., around 3:10 p.m. Monday, said Lt. Greg Lowry, of the Wapakoneta Police Department. Moments later, one person who had called the Police Department, said a deer had come crashing through a rear, lower-level window into the branch.

"At the back of the bank one of these large-paned windows that has a reflective tint to it was busted out. I approached the window, looked inside and saw a deer inside standing down the hallway from me in a room," Lowry said. "We were going to enter the bank that way and try to corral the deer. Once we got inside we realized it was a 200-pound buck and we decided we weren't going to corral it at all."

Lowry said it was likely the deer saw his reflection in the window. Bucks act aggressively toward other bucks, a natural instinct that likely led the deer to charge the window, he said.

Once inside, the deer began tearing things up, jumping on a table in a conference room, kicking hoof-sized holes in the walls and tearing down shelving inside a vault, Lowry said. There was deer fur, blood from a cut on its muzzle throughout the lower level of the bank, along with urine inside the vault, he said.

"We waited on him to decide if he was going to come back out," Lowry said. "After a few minutes, he took off running toward the open window, jumped, slammed into a small section of wall that was beside the window, crumpled to the floor, jumped up and then went out the window."

The deer ran through a parking lot that leads down to the Auglaize River, went across the frozen waterway and was last seen running north out of town, Lowry said. Aside from damage at the bank, no one was hurt, he said.

"We thought that the buck entered the bank to get some ‘dough,'" Lowry said.