Dead deer found atop power pole-Truth!

Dead Deer Found Top of Power Pole-Truth!

Summary of the eRumor
A dead deer was found atop a power pole, allegedly in Baltimore. A customer called Baltimore Gas & Electric to report both the deer and a power outage. It was later discovered that the deer had been struck by a train and ended up lying atop the power pole.

The Truth
Baltimore Gas & Electric says this service call never came to them and that there have been no incidents of dead deer on top of power poles.

There are several posts on the Internet that say the pictures are actually from Manitoba, Canada where many people saw the deer atop the power pole near the city of Headingly. Because the deer's back legs seem to have been mutilated, there are those who have speculated that something funny might be going on such as UFO activity. A local CBC TV affiliate launched an investigation into the deer story. A conservation officer speculated that since there were both railroad tracks and a deer trail nearby, the deer may have been struck by a train and landed on the pole. Scientists said, however, that if there had been the kind of impact to launch the deer 25-feet into the air, there would have been more obvious injury than missing portions of the back legs. One theory is that hoaxsters with a cherry picker put the carcass on top of the pole. No train engineers have reported a deer strike.

The Ithica Journal's Dave Henderson says there is

another deer mystery in Delaware County, New York. A hunter is said to have found a 70-pound button buck wedged in a tree about 12-feet off the ground. A wildlife technician said the deer had been shot with an arrow but he had no idea how it got into the tree.

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

Service call of the month from a Baltimore Gas & Electric
residential customer ..

BGE received a call from a customer saying: "My power is out.
When you come to fix it be sure to bring a truck with a tall enough
bucket to remove the deer".

The customer service rep prudently trying to gather helpful
information to help diagnose the problem asked, "What deer"?

The customer replied " There is a deer on top of one of the
electric poles on Wilkes Rd about 1/2 mile west of perimeter Rd".
The customer service rep tried desperately to pull herself
together and not laugh in front of the customer and replied" We will
dispatch someone right away to investigate the power outage. Thank you
for the call".

Upon completion of the call, the customer service rep
proceeded to share the funny story with her coworkers in the office and
they
all had a good laugh.

Well, low and behold, the serviceman who repaired the problem
stopped by the customer service office the following day with
the attached pictures. Sure enough, the deer had been hit by a train &
landed on top of a distribution feeder pole!