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Alaskan awakens to find bear in trailer
Associated Press — March 28, 2005
JUNEAU, Alaska — Florentino Acosta has seen plenty of black bears around his Juneau neighborhood but never inside his trailer home — until now.
Acosta woke up in the living room as the bear was breaking in. Acosta had fallen asleep while watching television.
His son, Paul, was shouting, and the only thing standing between him and the bear was a wooden door that the animal soon forced open.
Paul Acosta said the bear was inside for 30 to 45 minutes Thursday night before it left. Most of the time it was moving between the two ends of the living room, where Acosta family members were chasing it back and forth.
The bear got out of the trailer a couple of minutes before police arrived. Florentino Acosta said he didn't call the police right away because he lost track of the telephone in the excitement.
The bear probably weighed 500 to 600 pounds, he said, although his son said it wasn't that big.
No one was hurt. Florentino Acosta said the bear raised some blood pressure but that he was lucky his son woke him up.
Laurie Dubish, who lives about four trailers away, said she heard the son calling for help around midnight.
Bears, she said, "were in my yard last summer. I wouldn't let my kids out."
Acosta has also seen his share of bears. At the back of the Switzer Village mobile park, there is only a creek between his property and the woods.
Acosta said he believes the break-in bear could return. It's only the beginning of spring, and the bears aren't long out of hibernation.
Police said the incident at the trailer was the second call of a reported bear sighting in the area this spring. Capt. Tom Porter said garbage didn't attract the bear to the trailer.
Acosta said the garbage was inside, secured and not touched. The only thing he could figure is that the family had fried fish for dinner and the smell must have lingered.
and from the same site:
Bear takes dip in suburban L.A. pool
Associated Press — May 24, 2005
LOS ANGELES — A 140-pound bear wandered into a suburban neighborhood and took a dip in a swimming pool before being tranquilized and returned to the wild.
The female bear ambled into the San Fernando Valley's Porter Ranch area shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday, bumping into doors and windows before taking a few splashes in a backyard pool, fire spokesman Brian Humphrey said.
Homeowner Maryam Salahael pulled her children out of the pool when the bear showed up, and she called 911.
"My dog began barking very loudly. I went to see what's going on. I see a bear in my backyard," Salahael told KTTV-TV.
Authorities cordoned off the area as wildlife officials tranquilized the bear, said Cindy Wood of the California Department of Fish and Game. The animal was then released into the Santa Susana Mountains.
"It looks like it's possibly in heat," Wood said. "She probably just made a wrong turn and ended up in a neighborhood. She belongs up in the hills and that's where she lives."
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