Utah Deer Visit on Christmas Eve Ends in Tragedy

We regret to report that one of Rudolph's distant cousins met a tragic end on Christmas Eve.

A rogue buck stumbled into the home of a Utah family on Christmas Eve, according to Deseret News. The antlered beast was not actually a reindeer, but considering the time of year, the Keller family might be excused for thinking otherwise.

The ill-fated deer burst through the Kellers' basement window, and after bumbling through several rooms ended up, of all places, in the room where the family kept their Christmas presents. For the two hours while they waited for the local wildlife service to arrive, they peeked into the room to watch the deer and snap photos of it.

During the buck's sojourn, it trampled some of the Kellers' Christmas presents. Luckily none of the gifts inside were damaged, the family said.

"They're all laughing that there's a deer in the house, and I'm freaking out," Marla Keller told Deseret News. "I had all of Christmas down in that bedroom -- all organized, all prepared."

But what originally began as a startling yet enchanting Christmas experience reached a conclusion that would make Santa cringe. The officers put down the deer in order to remove it from the home.

Despite its bleak ending, the story does have an element of charm--which is more than can be said for two other cases of animal invasion that happened this year.

One home in Idaho was infested by swarms of snakes thought to number in the thousands. The snakes lived between the wall and the siding of the home, slithering and hissing at all hours of the day. The home's former owner, Ben Sessions, said he and his family caught or killed about 40 snakes during their stay. The family ultimately left the home fearing that the snakes posed health risks.

"I had dealt with and smelt enough snakes by then that the water tasted just like the snakes taste," Sessions said.

Another revolting story of infestation features a different category of critter: insect. A homeowner in Ohio told the Dayton Daily News that he was seeing somewhere from 50 to 60 cockroaches a night. True of many cases of gag-inducing infestations, the cockroach invasion stemmed from the infestation of a nearby foreclosed home. That house was said to be "alive with" roaches.

We'll take a well-mannered buck (check out those photo poses!) any day.

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