Employees and patrons at Tortuga’s Florida Kitchen and Bar in Flagler Beach witnessed something truly bizarre on Saturday: two deer sprinting through the bar area of the restaurant and knocking over multiple pieces of furniture. Security footage from the business caught the dine-and-dashers as they collided with chairs and nearly ran over a waitress.
The scene began normally enough. A handful of customers were dining at their tables and various employees were walking from station to station. Suddenly, one waitress had to stop in her tracks as two deer appeared seemingly from nowhere, moving in a great hurry.
One of the deer proceeded to plow into the row of high chairs at the bar, briefly getting tangled and leaving two of them knocked over. The other deer ran a clear path around the chairs but propelled its body into the air and over a table where someone was dining moments earlier.
The unexpected guests then sprinted into the gravel parking lot north of the restaurant. One car had to hit the brakes to avoid hitting the deer. They then went in the direction of 6th Street Deli to the west before going off-camera.
“I didn’t see the whole thing happen,” said Brooke Qualls, an employee who witnessed the chaotic scene. “I looked and just saw bar chairs getting knocked over, then I only saw the deer when they were running away from afar.”
It’s not clear where the deer came from or why they stopped by Tortuga’s without so much as buying a drink. There is a forested plot of land just southwest of Tortuga’s, where some witnesses speculated the deer may have originated. Where they went after their Saturday morning bar excursion is anyone’s guess.
The Florida white-tailed deer is among the most numerous large mammals in the Sunshine State, as well as one of its most popular game species. Once whittled to a population of just 20,000, there are now an estimated 625,000 deer in Florida alone.
That was cool to watch. We have deer coming into our yard at night at least three times a week. (Live in the R section) at one time a few years ago we had 6 at one time and two just laid down and took a short nap for like 20 minutes. Now there are two maybe three at a time when they come through the yard. The best to watch is when a buck comes through. So far the biggest was one with three points on each antler.