Recalling ‘Stylish Deer’ Story Always Brings a Holiday Shopping Laugh
By • December 23, 2021 0 1119
‘Tis the season. Hustling from crowded shop to shop, frantically searching clothes racks for hard-to-find price tags, scanning rummaged retail aisles while surrounded by jostling holiday shoppers — it can all be quite stressful.
So, it’s fun and stress-reducing to recall one’s most humorous holiday shopping memories to keep the yearly shopping-mania rituals as joyous as humanly possible.
At The Georgetowner, publisher Sonya Bernhardt recently recalled with a laugh the story of holiday shoppers trying on clothes inside some Wisconsin Avenue shops — some of her favorite spots for such pursuits — interrupted by the loud sounds of something ramming against a mirror in one of the fitting rooms of Diesel on the 1200 block of Wisconsin Ave. Turns out the noises were caused by a tiny, yet “stylish deer.”
According to Bernhardt, Del Quentin Wilber and Nia-Malika Henderson of The Washington Post captured the scene fittingly in all its silly glory for their story, “Deer Horns In on Shoppers in Tony Georgetown Stores.” Here’s how Wilber and Henderson reported the tale:
At least the deer had good taste.
As it ambled through Georgetown late yesterday afternoon, drawing crowds and causing traffic tie-ups, the young buck entered two of the trendiest clothing boutiques, Diesel and Ralph Lauren.
“It was definitely a stylish deer,” quipped Kira Sternburg, the manager of Diesel.
And popular. Some onlookers said the deer drew larger crowds than actress Nicole Kidman, who was in the area filming a movie earlier in the day.
The deer’s adventure in the Northwest Washington shopping district began at 4 p.m. and ended about 90 minutes later when D.C. animal control officers tranquilized it as it camped inside a fitting room in Ralph Lauren. The officers carried it outside — to chants of “Free Bambi!” — and said the animal will be all right.
Authorities said the year-old deer apparently wandered into Georgetown from Rock Creek Park. The deer population has been growing in recent years in the park, and this is deer-mating season, when males are moving about and frenzied.
Sternburg and other employees at Diesel were tending to customers when the three-foot-tall deer wandered in from the street and trotted to the back of the store, in the 1200 block of Wisconsin Avenue NW. The deer suddenly began to ram a large mirror. Clerks and customers scattered, until store employee Tim Murakami turned off the store’s lights.
“Once he did that, the deer settled down and walked out of the store,” Sternburg said.
The deer then trotted around the corner — to Diesel’s next-door neighbor, Ralph Lauren.
Sternburg and others speculated that the deer was drawn by Ralph Lauren’s equestrian-themed window — riding boots, leather saddles and bales of hay.
“It is very outdoorsy,” Sternburg said.
Ligia Lopez, a sales associate at the Kenneth Cole store, said she was walking along the block when she heard what was happening. She raced into Ralph Lauren and soon saw the antlers.
“We thought it was part of the display, part of their look, like maybe they were running a promotion,” Lopez said.
Lopez and others were hustled away, joining a growing crowd on the street. Many peeked into the store’s windows, and rush-hour traffic slowed as motorists became rubberneckers. Officers called over their police radios for help in controlling traffic and bystanders.
In Ralph Lauren, where the situation was very tense, the deer found its way into a fitting room.
“I don’t have time to talk right now,” said a store employee, reached by phone at 5 p.m. “We have a situation. We are addressing what is going on.”
A half-hour later, the drama ended. Animal control workers said they would release the buck in Rock Creek Park.
Ron Ecton, general manager of Ralph Lauren, said he was glad the deer and customers were safe.
“That was enough excitement,” he said. “It’s over. We just want to get back to business.”
For the full story in The Washington Post’s go to https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2005/10/27/deer-horns-in-on-shoppers-in-tony-georgetown-stores/29422b8e-4fa7-4b3b-aedc-ab884c592f53/?utm_term=.a8e2734ac019.
