The three employees inside the Randstad USA office were startled when a deer broke through the front door Wednesday morning and rushed to a back room. But it happened so quickly, they really didn’t have time to be frightened, said Michelle Hackney.

“We really didn’t know what to do,” Hackney said. “David trapped the deer in the back and we got out the front door.”

Hackney, David Walker and Haven Kimball were inside the Randstad office in the Crossroads shopping center on Highway 27 South in Carrollton when the deer shattered the glass front door.

Hackney said the deer, which she described as a large doe, ran “straight through the office” to the break room in the back of the office. Walker closed the door to the break room, trapping the deer inside. He then went to an adjacent office, exited its back door and opened the rear door to the Randstad break room, freeing the deer.

“We saw this deer running down the sidewalk about five minutes earlier, and then saw it running off through the parking lot,” Hackney said. “Next thing we looked up and it was charging through our office.

“We’re just glad it got out safely. David’s a hero.”

But Carroll County Animal Control couldn’t be certain of the deer’s well-being. One of its officers tracked the deer’s blood trail for 30 minutes but could not find the animal.

Hackney said the only damage done to the office was the shattered glass door, but Lt. Mike Jacquinot of Animal Control said it could have been worse. He said that in his 11 years with Animal Control, it’s the first incident he’s aware of in which a deer has entered a place of business in Carroll County.