Deer spotted 'chilling' on main road in Bloxwich
Deer oh deer, what are you doing there?
Driving through Bloxwich in the early hours of the morning, Craig Allen was not expecting to see three deer strolling down the main road.
But that was exactly the sight that greeted the distribution manager as he started his regular commute at 4.30am on Tuesday.
Just a few minutes after leaving his home in Shelfield, Mr Allen cut through the Low Farm estate and turned onto the A34 Stafford Road when he was greeted by the unusual sight near Bloxwich Golf Club.
"There was three of them," he explained. "I didn't know what they were at first and just about missed them before reversing back."
"They were just chilling out, playing in the middle of the road."
Concerned for the animals' safety on what would soon turn into a busy road during rush hour, Mr Allen herded the group off the tarmac and onto a nearby driveway.
"When they went back onto the footpath they were looking around and eating stuff off trees and the grass nearby," he added.
"I wound down the window and they didn't run off. I thought they were going to poke their heads into my car at one point!"
In a rush to arrive at work in Telford on time, Mr Allen called the police, but they decided no action was required and the location and welfare of the deer remains unknown.
Where the deer came from also remains a mystery to Mr Allen, who works as a deputy transport and distribution manager at MNA Media - the owner of the Express & Star and Shropshire Star.
"I live in Shelfield and was around a mile and a half away from home when I spotted the deer.
"I've never seen one around here and nobody has. Everybody's commenting on Facebook and nobody's seen it before.
"They looked like reindeer. They were adults compared to the one I saw yesterday."
That's right - incredibly, the Bloxwich sighting was the second time in two days Mr Allen had been greeted by deer in suburban areas of the West Midlands.
On Monday he spotted a young deer on the car park of his workplace at the Shropshire Star's offices in Ketley. The fawn was led to safety away from the main road by Mr Allen's colleagues.
