When Reindeer Go Bad

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard just hate being the bearers of still more bad holiday news. We already had to tell you about the unfortunate banning of Santa's Butt and the Seig Heil Santa, we had to tell the kids about the unfortunate fate of Rudolph the Red-Nosed lunchmeat, and now we have to bring even more sad Christmas-themed news. It seems that Blitzen, one of Santa's hitherto reliable flying reindeer has turned to a life of crime.

Yes, he stole himself and went joyriding.

OSLO (AP) — It took the long arm of the law to restore order when a renegade reindeer sprinted along a highway in Norway's Arctic, nearly causing a series of traffic accidents.

The long arm belonged to Acting Sheriff Klemet Klemetsen, who reached through the window of his police cruiser and grabbed the fleeing animal by the skin of the neck while driving alongside it.

"That was a new experience for me," the 50-year-old officer told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "It isn't normal procedure for a police officer to grab a reindeer through his car window. I've never heard of it before."

Motorists had called the police to warn of a panicked reindeer, which had been frightened by stray dogs, sprinting down the main road into Kautokeino, a key town for Norway's Sami reindeer herders, on Monday.

Klemetsen said by telephone that several of the drivers said they had nearly been in car crashes because of the reindeer, and that he knew he had to do something quickly before someone got hurt.

He spotted the reindeer, turned on his blue flashing lights, and set off in pursuit on the icy road.

"He was fast," said Klemetsen, who estimated that he was driving at about 20 miles an hour when he pulled up alongside the reindeer.

"Then I had to figure out what to do," he said. Klemetsen rolled down his window, closed in on the antlered culprit, and grabbed it. Then he brought the small, roughly 65 pound reindeer to a halt by maintaining his grip, and slowing down the police car.

Please note that a high-speed chase in Norway is not quite up to American standards. Reaching the blistering pace of 20 mph ain't exactly Bullitt. On the other hand, Klemetsen may have invented the Norwegian equivalent of goat roping! Sadly, Blitzen will be in the Kautokeino city hoosegow through the Christmas holiday. Santa is now down to seven tiny reindeer. It could be a long night for the big guy.

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  By steveH, Monday, 4 December , 2006 @ 9:08 pm

  Um, bullets travel significantly faster than 20 mph. Just sayin’…

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