OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) – Just days after their annual St. Patrick’s Day party, a local Irish pub received a wild visit – but it wasn’t from a leprechaun.
Typically, ‘Herd Up’ is a phrase used to refer to basketball in the City of Oshkosh with the Wisconsin Herd.
But staff and customers at Dublin’s Irish Pub in Oshkosh learned the real heritage of the phrase as a deer came crashing through the front window on Monday afternoon. Operations Manager Mark Rutkowski wasn’t there, and thought the bartenders were trying to pull a fast one on him. That is, until he reviewed the security footage.
“It got in, ran a lap of the restaurant, and ran out the other door. When I looked at the security footage [Tuesday morning], at least 6 to 7 deer all just hopped over that patio wall we have there and attempted to run through the building,” Rutkowski said. “The video is crazy because they just appear and disappear within seconds!”
Rutkowski says he hunts, but he’s never seen deer behave in that manner in the wild, or even when you’re driving around during the fall.
“It’s weird. It’s like frogs coming out of the sky, you know when people say it’s raining fish or something. All of a sudden, they appear – and then disappear as fast as they showed up,” Rutkowski told WTAQ News.
However, he does have a theory about where the deer came from. There’s a small retention pond area just across 9th Avenue, and Rutkowski speculates they were somehow spooked or scared by traffic in the area – leading them to run into the area of the bar.
The bar remains open for regular business, but Rutkowski had one caveat:
“Sorry, we will not be having any venison specials on the menu!”
