This Isn't Your Usual Home Burglar: Watch

LAND O' LAKES, FL -- This was one time the Pasco County Sheriff's Office decided not to arrest a burglar who was caught in the act.

This week, Thomas Lessing of Land O' Lakes returned home to find the glass on his front door shattered. Inside, Christmas decorations had been knocked over and strewn across the floor.

Heart racing, Lessing quickly called the sheriff's office.

As Pasco Sheriff's Sgt. Steven Napoleon and Deputy Adam Shaffer began surveying the home with a reluctant Lessing following them, they heard water running behind the closed bathroom door. Napoleon pulled his gun and ordered Lessing to stand back.

Announcing his presence, Napoleon threw open the door. But this wasn't the masked criminal he expected to find. Standing in the bathroom with the water inexplicably running was a nervous deer.

Fortunately, the bathroom had an exterior door. Napoleon and Shaffer simply opened it and waited for the barricaded doe to run for freedom into the woods behind the house.

It's a mystery how the deer got into the house. Lessing said his neighbor's surveillance camera recorded the sound of breaking glass followed by a buck running away from the house. Lessing figures the buck chased the doe right through the glass in his front door. The frightened doe then sought refuge in the bathroom and became trapped. Judging from the time stamp on his neighbor's surveillance video, the deer was trapped for about five hours.

That might explain the running water. Maybe she got thirsty and turned on the faucet for a drink.

Whatever the truth is, Lessing figures he's got a great Christmas story to tell.

And this was one burglar that Napoleon didn't mind releasing on her own recognizance.

Video via Pasco Sheriff

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