The Editor,
While I was on the phone last Saturday with a realtor, I was up a ladder outside my garage adjusting the motion sensor light. I heard a crash inside the garage and when I looked over at the garage door that was open, there was a giant black bear standing about two feet away from the garage.
The trouble was, there was noise coming from inside the garage so I knew there must be a bear inside the garage as well. I freaked out because all of the cars were inside the garage and I store the garbage cans beside the cars. All I could think about was garbage cans being smashed against the sides of the cars.
So I yelled at the big bear to get lost and it turned around and started going down the path to the backyard. I scrambled down the ladder (all the time talking to the realtor, trying to make a deal) and lunged at the keypad to open the other garage door. In my panic, I hit the wrong door code and proceeded to close the open door.
Now, the other thing in the garage was locked in, so I hit the keypad again and opened both doors. I walked into the garage and started yelling at the bear that was sitting down in front of one of our cars.
As I was screaming at the bear, it finally decided to get up. But instead of walking out the door, it started walking towards me. I grabbed the garbage can and blocked it by ramming the can between a vehicle and a garage post so that the bear had to walk out the door.
The bear walked toward the house next door so I ran inside to get the camera and bear spray so I could get a picture and be a bit safer. By the time I got back outside, the bear had turned around and was coming back.
I was a bit worried so I took the lock off the bear spray just in case. I really got aggressive and the bear backed up about six feet and stood up against a tree but instead of climbing, it sat down. I never used the bear spray.
All of this took 14 minutes in total from when I first spotted the bear to when it walked away next door. The mother bear didn’t get involved at all and spent the whole time next door chewing grass.
I have been around a lot of bears but never this close.
Coming home tonight, my wife texted me and said there was another bear walking down the street. We live close to nature.
Please be nice to the bears and don’t leave your garbage out.
Michael Robson, Anmore
