To put it mildly, Christmas decorations can cause a whole lot of controversy in a hurry, and it’s often not even the fault of the folks who put them up.
Nativity scenes, for example, often find themselves the victims of troubled teens who seek attention through vandalizing this homage to the birth of Christ.
Neighbors, who would otherwise be neighborly to one another, often bemoan each other’s choices in yuletide yard decorations, with accusations of a lack of tact often flying behind each others’ backs.
And let’s not even get started in a discussion about the timing of it all.
This week, however, it wasn’t the human factor that caused a decorative stir in Nevada, but the wildlife factor.
A Christmas display outside of a residence in Nevada is less one Rudolph after the inflatable reindeer wound up on the wrong end of a battle with a bewildered bear. According to a local media report, the peculiar incident occurred last Saturday in the community of Zephyr Cove, where homeowner Dave Lester had recently kicked off the holiday season by putting up some decorations in his front yard. Alongside inflatable versions of Santa, an elf, and a Christmas tree was the iconic red-nosed reindeer, which apparently looked close enough to the real thing that it wound up becoming the target of a bear passing through the neighborhood.
There was no coming back for poor Rudolph.
Recounting his discovery of the ‘carnage’ left behind from the encounter, Lester wrote on Facebook that he “woke up this morning to Rudolph laying on the ground unresponsive. No amount of CPR or duct tape could revive him.” A subsequent check of his home security camera showed the amusing moment when the bear attempted to maul the inflatable reindeer, which displayed such remarkable resiliency that it seemed to leave the creature rather confused. Despite repeatedly pawing and biting at the piece and even taking it to the ground, Rudolph continuously pops back up to a standing position until the aggressive animal finally gives up the fight.
Lester went on to mention that the bear and the not-real reindeer had a good old-fashioned stare-down last year, and that the mauling may have been in the works for a while.
Video of bizarre incident can be seen below:
