Thursday evening, I came across the story (thanks, Deadspin!) about . . . well, why don’t I let the headline speak for itself? Ex-Marine Kills Bear With Log.
Friday morning, around 6:15 a.m., I looked out of my window and noticed a full-sized bear walking into my driveway from across the street.
I zoomed across the house to grab my camera and take some pix (from upstairs), but the bear was out of sight. I went down to the front door to take a peek outside. He’d already ambled over to the neighbors’ yard, and was too shielded by trees for me to get a good photo of him. Unless . . . I was stupid enough to run over and get closer to him!
It’ll gratify you to know that I’m actually not that stupid. Instead, I lamented the lost pic. It’s the first time I’ve seen a bear in my neighborhood since I moved back to NJ in 1995. I’ve seen them a few times in morning commutes, and my old girlfriend saw one during a nature-walk, but that was it.
At work yesterday, I mentioned both stories to one of my coworkers who once shot cell-phone video of a whole family of bears walking through her backyard. She shared a story about the vicious bear gangs in her town.
Of course, this doesn’t beat last year’s “bear wanders into urban war zone” story that ended with the Irvington, NJ cops unloading their shotguns on a black bear that was believed to have gotten lost while trying to score some weed.