A couple from Nevada City, California, awoke early on Monday morning to find a bear in their house.
Melissa Bryant and Alan Aragon woke up just before 5 a.m. local time when they heard a noise in their home, as reported by WLWT5. The couple walked out of their bedroom, turned around and Bryant told WLWT5 she said: "Oh my goodness, there's a bear in our house!"
Aragon described the experience of seeing the bear in their home as "terrifying, exciting, beautiful."
Fortunately, the bear didn't pay much attention to the couple and was much more interested in the food in their freezer and pantry as he ate for nearly 20 minutes. Aragon said: "He didn't do anything other than eat," while Bryant added: "It was a really chill bear."
Amazingly, the only damage the bear caused was a torn screen door, its point of entry into their home.
But Bryant and Aragon's home wasn't the bear's first stop that morning. When the couple sent their neighbor a video of the bear, the neighbor replied with a photo of the bear at her house at around 4:30 a.m. that morning.
Elsewhere in Northern California, a Meyers resident was attacked by a bear inside a home last week. The person had to shoot the bear in self-defense.
Peter Tira with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told KCRA: "We are seeing more boldness in places like Nevada City, places like Tahoe. Bears are becoming very comfortable around people, and in some cases becoming too comfortable."
People across the U.S. have encountered bears in recent weeks.
A family in California opened their garage to find that the room had been taken over by a mother bear and her three cubs. In a viral TikTok video, a man opens the garage door to see the cubs exploring the family's things, before the mother bear charges at the man, who is able to close the door just in time.
In Alaska, a hiker was walking with his 13-month-old Border Collie dog on Sunday when the dog chased a brown bear and two cubs. The hiker was bitten twice by the mother bear.
A bear in Tennessee sat at a picnic table and helped itself to a family's lunch until it was chased away by park rangers with a paintball gun. In Connecticut, another bear interrupted a family's summer activities by hopping in a child's paddling pool to cool down during the heatwave.
In New Hampshire, a bear was filmed spinning around a pole in a suburban garden, giving the impression that it was "pole dancing."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
