Northeast News
September 4, 2013

A little after 7:45 a.m. Sept. 1, Officer Jason Rains was traveling down Blue River Road when he spotted a small doe heading into traffic and onto the 87th Street bridge.

Wanting to ensure the safety of the doe, he followed the deer in his vehicle and witnessed the deer begin to slide across the wet pavement. Passing traffic spooked her, and she attempted to leap over the concrete barrier on the side of the bridge. If she’d made it, she would have fallen more than 100 feet into the Blue River below. Officer Rains backed his patrol vehicle up so as not to spook her further. Sergeant Steven Sandusky arrived, and the two prevented traffic from getting to her. But they couldn’t figure out why she was lying at the side of the bridge and not getting up.

“She was just lying there, shaking,” Officer Rains said. “Her leg was caught in one of those drainage holes on the bridge. It was her entire leg, all the way up to her body.”

In the pouring rain and lightning, Officer Rains reached down and pulled the doe’s leg out. She gratefully accepted his help and didn’t bite or try to fight back. He said the only injury the deer appeared to have was a small scratch on her face. Fearing she might try to jump off the bridge again, Sergeant Sandusky sent Officer Rains to get a rope out of his car. But the deer felt comfortable with Sergeant Sandusky, and as the video shows, he was able to lead her off the bridge by simply walking alongside her and guiding her with his baton. They led the deer to a wooded area by the Firefighters’ Memorial.

“She went and lay down back there,” Officer Rains said. “I came back an hour later, and she was gone.”

Here’s the link to the video:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnZTPRRN81A