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Deer spends holiday weekend with people at Saugatuck beach

Posted at 9:12 PM, Jul 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-08 21:12:32-04

SAUGATUCK, Mich. — A whitetail deer has become famous after spending his holiday weekend on the beach in Saugatuck.

In a video that has now been viewed over a million times, the deer can be seen walking up to groups of people on Saturday at Saugatuck Dunes State Park.

“Everybody is in shock, they’re like, ‘that’s a deer!’ And a dog-friendly beach, because they didn’t realize that was a deer and not a giant dog,” said Katie Papke, who captured the video.

Her daughter Aubrey said seeing the deer was a weird experience.

“I heard all this commotion and people being like ‘oh my gosh there’s a deer,’” Aubrey Papke said. “And I turned around and there’s a deer just coming up to this girl and it’s looking up and looking at all the people and going in the water, and it was really weird and a cool experience.”

It’s an experience a growing number of visitors have been sharing.

Jason Music had a run-in with the same deer on Monday.

“We didn’t know anything about the deer, we met him about halfway up the trail and he thought he was going with us and he did,” Music said.

Music took a couple selfies with the deer before it got a little too comfortable.

"At first it was pleasant, real comical, everyone was enjoying him, until he decided he liked our spot better than everybody else’s and he didn’t want to leave us alone,” Music said.