For a hunter, there are few things more exciting than bringing home a prized trophy deer.

You can’t wait to get it home, show it off to your friends and neighbors and then preparing the venison steaks and jerky you’ve been craving all fall.

A local hunter was oh, so close to enjoying the spoils of his weekend hunt, but forgot a key step: getting the deer home.

The Greenfield Police Department received a call from a resident about a deceased deer in traffic on 46th Street just south of Morgan Avenue around 12:45 p.m. Monday.

When police arrived, they found the field-dressed deer in the 3700 block of South 46th Street, checked the ear tag and found it belonged to a 28-year-old man. Police contacted the man’s 23-year-old brother, who said his tailgate must have opened without him realizing and the deer fell out.

The deer was turned over the man’s younger brother.