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Deer busts into Madison bank
Startled animal sets off alarm, breaks into carpet store
By Minauti Davé, Daily Record
MADISON - A frightened deer set off an alarm at the First Morris Bank early Tuesday morning, but fled with no bucks.
Police who arrived at the bank on Main Street shortly before 6 a.m. initially thought a robber - possibly an injured one -was still inside the bank. The bank's front door was smashed and police saw fresh blood inside. Across the street, another store also had a smashed front window.
Madison officers summoned backup, shut down Main Street and began searching the bank, believing the robber was inside.
At Cramers Carpet One, the business across the street, owner Brad Cramer reported hearing a noise inside. Eight members of a SWAT team, dressed in dark jackets and helmets, crept up to the broken window with machine guns poised to fire, Cramer said.
Inside the carpet store, the Morris County Prosecutor's Office K-9 unit, which also assisted, found a wounded deer, which bounded back out the broken front window. Police said the deer appeared to have cuts on its hindquarters. It was last seen running toward Central Avenue.
The deer did considerable damage in the hour and a half between setting off the bank alarm and leaping back out of the carpet store window. Cramer said the animal left behind pools of blood in the store, stained many of the carpets and ruined one of his oriental rugs.
"I was the first one to walk in besides the SWAT team," said Cramer, who added he initially thought the damaged window was caused by youths breaking and entering.
"It was just an eventful day," Cramer said.