Police officers in New York rescued a baby deer stuck in dangerously cold waters.
According to a news release from the Suffolk County Police Department, a park ranger first spotted the distressed fawn stuck in the chilly waters of Narrow Bay in Shirley, New York, on Sunday. News of the struggling baby animal made its way to the Suffolk County Police Department, which sent out officers to assist in the fawn’s rescue.
Officers Robert Daniels, Robert King, and Gary Quenzer responded to the call and worked as a team to reach the fawn, who was floating “half-submerged in the icy water roughly 60 feet off-shore.”
According to the release, all three officers put on cold weather rescue gear for the lifesaving mission, and then King laid on an ice sled while Daniels and Quenzer helped him deploy the sled out to the deer and back.
“King approached the fawn, then lifted it out of the approximately 40-degree water and onto the sled, and Daniels and Quenzer pulled the sled safely back to shore, at 4:55 p.m. The deer was towel-dried and wrapped in blankets,” the release on the rescue stated.
After the successful rescue, the fawn was taken to an animal rescue for treatment.
On Facebook, the police department joked that with the 2022 Winter Olympics just weeks away, the “figure skating team might be gearing up” for one of the world’s biggest sporting event, but the officers of Suffolk County already delivered a “gold medal-worthy rescue in our book!”
One person wrote in the comments section of the department’s Facebook post, “Happy ending. Love stories like this!! Remarkable men & women risking their lives to save animals!!!” while another praised the officers for a job well done: “Thank you Suffolk County Marine Bureau. Great job. We can always depend on you.”