A 1,000-pound moose got trapped in a Colorado basement — creating a bind for both the animal and the people tasked with rescuing him.
The cleaning crew was the first to notice the giant wild animal lurking around in the basement and all of the destruction it left behind.
“It fell on a couch and there were holes in the walls from where his hooves had hit. Where his antlers were scratching the walls and of course all the moose poop that comes along with it,” said Breckenridge Police Sergeant Patrick Finley.
Parks and Wildlife officials tried to get the moose to leave on its own by opening all the doors and trying to spook it, but the moose refused to go up the stairs.
“A moose is going to do what a moose is going to do” Finley said.
When all else failed, they used a tranquilizer to put the moose to sleep and then started the long, arduous process of rolling it onto a tarp and dragging it up the stairwell.
“Was kind of just step by step. And we were actually really lucky because the staircase was somewhat wider than others and it didn’t have any 90° turns. It was kind of just a spiral up,” said CPW District Wildlife Manager Jacob Kay.
They did have to trim the moose’s antlers but moose naturally lose their antlers around this time anyway.
Once it was outside, officials woke the animal back up and sent it on its way.
“He probably just thought it had some crazy nightmare. The other moose are probably not going to believe this story,” Finley said.
The moose is fine minus a cut on its leg. The basement is destroyed.
(Copyright (c) 2025 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)