Deer smashes through window, chases woman

June 10, 2003

BY LUCIO GUERRERO Staff Reporter

Julie Ann Somenek was sitting at her kitchen table in Northbrook on Monday morning, reading her Sun-Times. The next moment, she was face-to-face with a 200-pound, four-point buck that had just crashed through her living room window after being chased by a neighbor's dog.

"I didn't have time to look up when I heard it come through the window," said Somenek, who lives in the 4300 block of Phyllis Road. "I was surprised."

Once inside, the deer went for the 62-year-old woman, knocking her out of her chair, then heading to the laundry room. Somenek, who owns Somenek Pastries in Niles, thought fast. "I'm not sure how I got up, but I was able to lock it in the room," she said. "I was scared it was going to break out."

It tried, thrashing and kicking and banging on the door. A few minutes later, the police arrived and devised a plan: They left the back door open, then a brave soul opened the laundry room door and moved out of the way while the buck ran out the back.

It worked, but the deer made a mess of the laundry room. "He must have cut himself because it looked like a murder scene in there," said Somenek's son, Ed, who was also home at the time. "There was blood everywhere."

Julie Ann Somenek was checked out at Glenbrook Hospital's emergency room, where doctors and nurses kept coming by to hear her story.

"We would see deer in the back yard all the time," her son said later. "We used to like them-- not anymore."

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