Teen known as 'Deer Magnet' after hitting 5 in a year

A 17-year-old from Conrad, Iowa, is convinced she is approaching a painful record. In the last 12 months, she said she has hit five deer while driving her family's vehicles. Kacee Larson said her string of bad luck began around 11 p.m. one night last July when she was driving home from her work at a local ice cream shop. "Then I saw the deer and I was just like boom," said Kacee. The girl, who normally wears a full chest brace because of scoliosis, was fine. Her minivan was damaged but drivable.

Kacee's second encounter with deer happened just a few months later, while she was driving to church on a Sunday morning. "It just kind of was there," Kacee laughed. "It flipped up over the vehicle and I killed it. I had my sister with me and she screamed." This time, she hit the deer with her mom's van, busting up another grill. Kacee said her third encounter with a deer happened a few months later, just miles from her home north of Conrad, while taking a cross country teammate home from practice. The 17-year-old thought she saw a cat in the ditch. "Well, instead of it being a cat, it's a deer, pops up, pretty much just nicks the van and goes back down," said Kacee.



This spring, Kacee's string of bad luck continued. She was on her way to her baby-sitting job at 5:30 a.m. one morning when she spotted deer and slowed down. "I was driving along and it came off the side and rammed right into me and then - pulled over and looked at the damage and like, 'Crap. Another one,'" Kacee said. "I was told by my pastor's wife to start praying before I get in a vehicle and I started doing that and I did that all the way to work this morning until I hit the deer and so I don't know what happened today," she said on Friday, just hours after hitting her fifth deer in 12 months. Last Friday, she was on her way to work as a baby sitter on County Road S-75, when she hit the fifth deer head on, deploying her airbag. "Then all the sudden there's one in front of me and I'm like, 'Dang it,'" she said. "I hit dead centre."

Kacee's mother Ronda was woken up with a phone call around 3:45 a.m. A Grundy County deputy responded since Kacee had bruises from the airbag up and down her arms. The crash totalled Kacee's minivan. Law enforcement officers often use the phrase 'don't veer for deer,' explaining that drivers who quickly attempt to avoid deer crashes often roll their vehicle or veer into oncoming traffic. Kacee has been following that advice, but asks, "Why does it happen to me? Why me? Why pick me?" Considering the seriousness of the five crashes, Kacee and her mother are keeping their sense of humour, referring to the teenager as a deer magnet. Kacee's mother jokingly said, "Let's find a 50 dollar car and put a steel plate in the front. That way, if she hits a deer it's just going to bounce off."