Six-point buck breaks into Blue Moon Bikes in Sycamore

SYCAMORE – Someone broke Blue Moon Bikes in downtown Sycamore on Saturday night, and when police responded they found a four legged, brown haired suspect still on the scene.

Sycamore Police Sergeant John Keacher said he was working the night shift when someone reported “that someone was breaking glass inside” a downtown Sycamore shop. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene alongside Sycamore police, and discovered the culprit.

“When they arrived there they were surprised to find that there was a buck deer in the bike shop,” Keacher said. “The front glass was broken and they could see a deer inside.”

In a video titled “Oh Deer” that posted to social media by Blue Moon Bike Shop, a six-point buck deer could be seen galloping out of a building in the 200 block of State Street in Sycamore.

The owners of Blue Moon Bike Shop, which is closed on Mondays for the winter season, were unavailable for comment.

“It looks like at one point the deer unfortunately went down toward the basement,” Keacher said. “It could be heard just thrashing stuff around inside the shop. Obviously not it’s natural environment, it was relatively uncomfortable, I think, finding itself inside there. It was bleeding a little bit.”

Keacher said the deer’s escape occurred about two hours after it had crashed through the shop’s front window and was coxed into leaving the through “creative persuasion.”

To get the deer out of the basement, Keacher said a tow-strap type of device was used on an antler, which allowed the officers to pull and push the deer up the basement stairs.

Before officers got to that point, Sycamore police requested the assistance of the Illinois Department of Natural resources, and were helped by a local conservation police officer. Keacher said the conservation police officer took the lead in accessing how to humanely deal with the deer in the bike shop.

“They were considering tranquilizing it, and ultimately if they needed to, dispatching it, but obviously he was able to access that and determine that he felt that it would be alright if they could just get it out,” Keacher said.

Once they got the deer up the stairs, it left the same way it came entered, Keacher said. Through the window.

For a couple of hours Saturday evening, Sycamore police officers shut down traffic along State Street in anticipation of the deer’s escape. When it escaped, the deer could be seen traveling west in the video shared by Blue Moon Bikes.

There were no reports of vehicles versus deer crashes reported by DeKalb County officials Saturday evening, however two such instances occurred in the county Sunday and Monday. In both instances the drivers were reported to be uninjured but the struck deers were killed.

Keacher said he’s previously responded to calls of deer in places they clearly shouldn’t be, but said what he responded to Saturday was a first of it’s kind situation for him.

“Personally, that’s the first time that I’ve heard of one [deer] in the downtown, definitely the first time I’ve heard of one breaking into a store,” Keacher said.