A deer runs through the Crystal City station at 8:32 a.m. (Screenshot via Metro)
Most of the wild antics on Metro these days have involved Washington Capitals players, but that got a lot more literal this morning.
In what may be a first for WMATA, a deer made its way into an indoor station. Rather than hopping the turnstiles at Crystal City, it took something of a back entrance.
“We assume that he or she came in the same way that he exited, which is through the tunnel portal between Crystal City and the airport,” says Metro spokesman Dan Stessel.
There were no significant delays as a result of the incident, which took place at 8:32 a.m.
The deer remained in the station for a few minutes, before being gently encouraged to get out by an inbound train. The video shows a Blue line operator in the southbound direction pulling slowly into the station.
“The maneuver where the train was very slowly moving in to the station and sort of pushing the deer out—that was by design,” according to Stessel.
Metro isn’t planning to make any changes to deter future Bambis. There’s already fencing around the area, but deer have been known to hop over enclosures as high as eight feet.
“There’s not much you can do here to prevent this, but it’s incredibly rare,” Stessel says. While WMATA has certainly seen deer on outdoor tracks before, this was the first time that he could recall one making it inside an indoor station.
No one was injured in the incident. There were, however, several startled passengers—seen in Metro footage looking up from their cellphones in shock as they realized that a deer was prancing along the platform.
Otherwise, Stessel says, “no harm, no foul.”
Seems like *everyone* wants to get aboard the @Capitals train this morning! (Crystal City Station, 8:30 a.m. today — this little guy somehow wandered into the tunnel & ended up at the station. Safely exited through the tunnel back toward DCA.) #OHDEER #ALLCAPS #WMATA #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/3ibeGuYwUe
— Metro (@wmata) June 12, 2018
Rachel Sadon