Shoppers in a quiet Tennessee town were jolted awake Friday morning when a deer burst through the entrance of a holiday boutique, kicking off a series of strange wildlife incidents stretching from the Southeast to the West Coast.
Authorities said the unexpected chaos began when the animal barreled through the front door of Gabriel’s Christmas & More in Jonesborough, sending ornaments tumbling and startling early morning customers.
By the time officers arrived, the deer had shimmied its body into an easy chair as if attempting to blend in with the decorations.
Bodycam footage released by the Jonesborough Police Department showed officers maneuvering through toppled merchandise in an effort to coax the distressed creature out.
The department offered a humorous summary of the event on Facebook, joking that “one of Santa’s Reindeer” appeared to be “clearly three sips too deep into the Holiday Spirits and making terrible life choices.”
According to the post, the deer seemed determined to explore every corner of the shop. “Once inside, he took a grand tour: sniffed the ornaments, inspected the garland, side-eyed a nutcracker, and galloped around like he was trying to remember where he parked the sleigh,” the department wrote.
Officers said they eventually approached the trapped animal and attempted to redirect it toward the exit.
Through their online account of the incident, police added a tongue‑in‑cheek reprimand: “Sir… Although it’s almost Christmas, you can’t act like this in a Main Street Christmas establishment.”
The agency said officers “gently escorted our tipsy legend back outside once he decided to wedge himself in the middle of an easy chair,” noting that no injuries were reported and the shop reopened shortly afterward.
While the deer’s visit drew laughs states away, a separate and equally chaotic incident in Virginia involved a raccoon that authorities said launched into a “liquor-fueled rampage” after breaking into a local alcohol retailer on Black Friday.
Officials with the Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter said employees arriving for work found shattered bottles scattered across the floor of a liquor store in Ashland.
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A trail of broken glass led them to the bathroom, where the suspect, described as a severely intoxicated raccoon, lay sprawled out next to a toilet.
Authorities posted a photo of the animal lying beside a garbage bin, calling the scene both comical and messy.
The shelter later identified the raccoon as “Cole” and joked that he might need a ride home after what they described as a “wild weekend.” Police brought the creature to the shelter so staff could monitor it while it sobered up.
“After a few hours of sleep and zero signs of injury (other than maybe a hangover and poor life choices), he was safely released back to the wild, hopefully having learned that breaking and entering is not the answer,” officials wrote.
Samantha Martin, who works with the county’s animal control team, told CBS News that she found the situation hilarious.
“I personally like raccoons,” she said. “They are funny little critters. He fell through one of the ceiling tiles and went on a full-blown rampage, drinking everything.”
Shelter officials noted that there is no video of the event because the raccoon entered through the ceiling and “took the cameras down with him.”
Police have not shed light on what drew the raccoon to the store, although they responded to the shelter’s public statement with a GIF of Simon Cowell clapping.
The Virginia raccoon saga came just weeks after another alcohol-related animal rescue in Kentucky, where a nurse helped revive a raccoon found floating in a dumpster full of fermented peaches outside a moonshine distillery.
Misty Combs, who works with the Letcher County Health Department in Whitesburg, told The Washington Post she encountered the struggling animal near the Kentucky Mist Distillery on Aug. 14. She and her colleagues initially freed one raccoon with a shovel, but another remained unconscious, its fur soaked in the potent liquid.
NEW: Kentucky nurse Misty Combs performs CPR on a drunk raccoon.
"Our health department is right beside Kentucky Mist Moonshine, a distillery…" Combs said, explaining how a raccoon was trying to get her two babies, who were stuck in a dumpster.
"I just started doing CPR on… pic.twitter.com/x4YcZAz8N5
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 8, 2025
“Not on my watch,” Combs said she thought at the time. “I’m going to try to do whatever I can do to save it.”
Combs said she pulled the raccoon from the dumpster by its tail and laid it on its back in the parking lot.
She started chest compressions with her hands while shouting, “Come on, baby! Come on.” According to the Post, the animal eventually began coughing up water and thrashing.
Once it was able to breathe steadily, Combs rolled the raccoon onto its side, then wrapped it in a towel with help from coworkers.
The team named the revived animal Otis Campbell, a nod to the frequently drunk character from “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Distillery owner Colin Fultz told the outlet he asked local officials to provide a lidded dumpster to prevent further incidents, noting that the business uses peaches from southern Appalachia to make its fruit-infused moonshine.
After a veterinarian checked the raccoon, wildlife officials released it beneath a nearby bridge. Combs watched as it ran off into the grass.
“I couldn’t leave that baby in the dumpster knowing it was drowning,” she said.
Farther west, in Southern California, a homeowner discovered that an entirely different kind of wild visitor had taken up residence beneath his property.
Ken Johnson, who lives in Altadena, said he initially suspected minor vandalism when he noticed overturned items in his yard and mysterious damage to parts of his home. But after hearing unusual noises, he realized the culprit was far larger than expected.
“It was really big. I’ve seen him before, but he was going through the trash and then the next morning he’s coming out from underneath my house,” Johnson told KTTV.
An uninvited guest emerged from under Ken Johnson's home in Altadena, California: a large bear that had set up residence in his crawl space.
Johnson’s bear sighting was not the first since wildfires hit the city in January. https://t.co/bXxf2r4Vai pic.twitter.com/o62Cxo09mU
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 3, 2025
Concerned by the growing disturbances, Johnson installed security cameras to discover what was happening under his home. The footage revealed a massive 500 pound bear squeezing in and out of the crawl space repeatedly.
“Someone said that he doesn’t hibernate because this is California, but they den,” Johnson said. “So, he’s making that his den for the winter.”
Johnson believes the bear may have been using the crawl space as its personal shelter since June. He said he often hears the animal moving while he watches television in the kitchen.
“I can hear him when I’m in the kitchen watching TV at night, I can hear him moving around under there,” he said. “And he tries to get out, everything kind of shakes.”
