Deer crashes through window, jumps in pool and interrupts swim lessons, video shows
Swim lessons at a recreation center in Canada were stopped by an uninvited attendee: a deer, officials said. The animal crashed through a window and jumped in the pool, videos show.
Francesco Siino was at the Vollmer Culture and Recreation Complex in LaSalle on the afternoon of Sunday, Feb. 25, for his kid’s swim lesson, he told CTV News Windsor, a Canadian news outlet.
“We were in the changing rooms and a parent rushed in and said, ‘You guys won’t believe this. There’s a deer in the swimming pool,’” Siino told the outlet. “I thought there was no way.”
The deer had crashed through a window near the hot tub and sent shards of glass across the pool deck, according to a news release from the Town of LaSalle.
About 30 people were in the pool area, and “swimming lessons were in progress,” officials said. Staff cleared the area and tried to help the deer find its way out.
The deer ran around the pool deck and jumped into the pool, a video shared by Siino on TikTok shows. It swam across the pool and got out on the other side.
“Y’all wouldn’t believe me if I told you a deer broke into the Vollmer Recreation Complex,” Siino wrote in a Feb. 25 Facebook post..
Siino’s second video shows the deer swimming in a different section of the pool. Several people stand around the pool deck watching the deer and appear to try to guide the animal using the buoys.
Eventually, “staff coaxed the deer into the main lobby and helped it find its way outside,” officials said.
“This is not something that you can train for,” Patti Funaro, LaSalle’s director of culture and recreation, said in the release. “I commend the staff on duty who responded immediately to ensure the safety of the patrons and the deer.”
No one was harmed during the incident although the day after, Monday, Feb. 26, a swimmer “stepped on a piece of glass at the bottom of the pool.”
The deer “may have cut itself” but went on its way.
The recreation center temporarily closed its pool and hot tub. The pool was later reopened Tuesday, Feb. 27, after “divers performed an extensive sweep.”
LaSalle, Ontario, is along the Canada-U.S. border and about 10 miles south of Detroit.
This story was originally published February 29, 2024 at 1:32 PM with the headline "Deer crashes through window, jumps in pool and interrupts swim lessons, video shows."
