Soldier Surprises Son at Minnesota Zoo

— -- A 3-year-old Minnesota boy who thought he was going to see animals at his beloved local zoo instead was surprised by the sight of his father, a deployed service member.

Minnesota Zoo officials say they received a call Friday morning from the mother of U.S. Army Sgt. Joseph Scott, Karen Tulk, who said her son was coming home from a year-long deployment and wanted to surprise his son at their shared favorite place.

“Sgt. Scott grew up himself near the zoo and came all the time as a kid and the zoo is also the favorite place for Evan,” Beth Burns, the zoo’s vice president for external relations, told ABC News.

Evan Scott is Sgt. Scott’s 3-year-old son. He thought he was on a regular zoo tour with his family and friends Saturday morning when he instead got the surprise of his life.

“I was the group’s escort and we just pretended we were having a normal day at the zoo,” Burns told ABC News. “In the meantime, Karen picked up her son from his discharge site and brought him straight to the zoo.

“Once he got to the zoo, we took Sgt. Joe to our Close Encounters program, which provides live animal demonstrations and allows the guests to interact with the animals.”

Evan was in the audience, along with around 100 other people, for the 11 a.m. Close Encounters show that had been scripted specifically for the surprise.

“The staff focused the show on Minnesota animals that help their environments,” Burns said. “Sgt. Joe was hidden behind the curtain and they asked for a volunteer from the audience and picked Evan.”

The zookeeper’s introduction of the next “animal” included hints like it “hasn’t been seen in our state for a year” and explained that the “animal” does wonderful things for our country.

When Evan yelled, “Come on out,” as instructed, he saw that his dad was home from his one-year deployment to Iraq and Kuwait.

“Everyone starts bawling,” Burns said. “Evan’s immediate reaction was, ‘What’s going on,’ and then he could not stop touching his dad’s face and dad, of course, was so excited to see his son.”

“It means everything,” Sgt. Scott told WCCO-TV. “I chose to serve my country and I really love to give back to him, and reconnect with him today at someplace that’s special to me.”

Burns says it was the first time a military reunion like that had been planned by Minnesota Zoo officials.

“We host wedding proposals often but we’ve never been formally involved with this kind of reunion,” she said. “It meant a lot to us to be able to say thank you to Sgt. Joe for his service. It was really meaningful for our staff”

Watch the full surprise here.