Moose drops in - literally

Photos courtesy of Idaho Department of Fish and Game A moose stands in the basement of a Hailey, Idaho, home after breaking through a window well and falling into the residence.

A cow moose is sedated so it can be removed from the basement of a home in Hailey, Idaho.

| January 31, 2017 12:00 AM

A cow moose is sedated so it can be removed from the basement of a home in Hailey, Idaho.

A moose made a surprise visit Saturday night to a central Idaho home.

The cow moose broke through a window well and became trapped in the finished basement of the residence in Hailey, 12 miles south of Sun Valley.

Blaine County sheriff’s deputies and police officers from Hailey and nearby Bellevue worked with Idaho Department of Fish and Game personnel to try to herd the moose up the stairs and out the home’s front door to freedom.

“The moose was having none of it, charging the officers several times,” wrote conservation officer Josh Royse, on Fish and Game’s Magic Valley web page.

A wildlife manager was called around 3 a.m. Sunday to bring narcotics to mellow the moose, which collapsed, sedated, near a Bob Marley wall hanging.

The responders then carried the sleeping ungulate up the stairs and out the front door.

“It woke up in the snow-covered street, groggy and confused, but free,” Royse wrote.

The Blaine County Sheriff’s Office reported deep snows are driving wildlife close to homes looking for food.

For conservation officer Alex Head, it must have felt like deja vu.

Last winter, Head responded to what he thought would be a once-in-a-career event — a cow elk broke through a window well and was trapped in a finished basement.