KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- Michigan police officers got the scare of their life Tuesday when they opened up a car trunk in Kalamazoo and a deer jumped out.

Police noticed a man sitting in his car in a hotel parking lot and walked up to the car.

The man hit the trunk release and said he had a dead deer in the trunk. He said he hit the deer, thought he killed it and put it in the trunk to take home for dinner but he did not realize the deer was still alive.

"The deer ran away and was unscathed," said Lieutenant Stacey Geik, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety. "The officer was certainly surprised, one held his ground better than the other as the video indicated."

Michigan actually has the highest number of car versus deer crashes.