“There’s a deer trapped in an escalator” was not a phrase anyone at Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norfolk was expecting to hear when staff at a Marks & Spencer department store in central Norwich called last Tuesday.
“In Norfolk, deers often get themselves in trouble,” said the sanctuary’s founder, Wendy Valentine. “They get stuck between walls and sheds, and in gates. It’s quite common for deer to get trapped … But ‘trapped in an escalator’ was a first.”
The female muntjac deer was found wedged upside down between two glass panels next to the handrail of the ground-floor escalator of the shop, which – paradoxically – is located on Rampant Horse Street.
“Somehow it got in between there [the glass panels] and got itself upside down with its foot caught in a bit of metal.”
After being covered by an M&S blanket to try to calm her down, the deer was rescued by sanctuary worker Ian Haywood, who managed to reach into the space between the glass panels and free her.
“Ian’s used to handling wild deer… we’re called [to rescue them] at least once every day, sometimes two or three times,” Valentine said. “He said he held on to it tightly … he didn’t want it racing around Marks & Spencer.”
The deer has been nicknamed ‘lucky’ Lucy by staff at Hillside because it sustained only a “superficial cut on its foot”. “It was fine, more petrified than anything,” said Valentine. “It’s lucky it didn’t injure itself more than it did.”
Lucy is “resting and stable”, and has spent the last few days feasting on branches, hogweed, grass and other delicacies at the sanctuary, which also cares for 100 other rescued deer. “She’s now settled and I’m feeding her several times a day. She particularly likes dandelions, hawthorn leaves and bramble leaves,” Valentine said, adding she has never seen this food sold at an M&S supermarket.
She suspected the deer had panicked after entering the shop, because the escalator is in the middle of the store. “When they go into deer mode and panic, they run into anything. They just get frantic – and that’s how they often get themselves trapped.”
The sanctuary had once rescued a deer from the ladies’ toilets of a shopping centre in Norwich, she added, and praised the response of M&S staff.
An M&S spokesperson said: “We’re grateful to our Norwich store colleagues for their swift response when an unexpected visitor entered the store on Tuesday. The team moved quickly to keep the muntjac deer calm, and with the help of Hillside Animal Sanctuary, it was safely rescued.”