A homeowner in Chevy Chase, Maryland, said he nearly pet a bear he mistook for a dog in his neighbor's backyard Wednesday night.
The homeowner, who did not want to be identified, said he heard a noise in his backyard in the area of Woodlawn Road and Spring Valley Road and thought it was his neighbor's dog, Ovi, on the other side of the fence. When he went outside to investigate, he got within inches of the animal and nearly pet it before realizing it was a bear, he said.
He then ran back inside and called police.
“He said, ‘Lee, there’s a bear in your backyard. I’m not kidding,’” Lee Miller said. “And so then we talked to him … and he’s like, ‘So, I walked out there thinking it was Ovi or you guys had another guest dog, and I reached over the fence to pet him, and he turned his head, and it was a bear.’ And he’s, like, literally, like, 6 to 12 inches.”
Miller and Sheila Firestein have bird feeders and a water fountain in their backyard.
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Bird feeders had been knocked down Tuesday night, but Miller assumed it was raccoons.
Miller and Firestein have been watching from their kitchen window as the bear returns every night, pulling down bird feeder and climbing a tree to take naps.
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The home isn't far from where a black bear was spotted in a Kensington neighborhood both Monday and Tuesday.
Surveillance video shows the bear rummaging through trash cans and feasting on garbage Monday night on Dewmar Lane. Then, residents spotted the bear again Tuesday on Culver Street.
The area is only a few blocks from the Beltway.
“I didn’t even walk my dog last night. I wasn’t going to go do that and I may not do it tonight either until there is some resolution," resident Ian Velinsky said.
Velinsky lives on Culver Street, where the bear was spotted in a yard sometime after 8 p.m.
Messages and warnings about the bear flooded the neighborhood listserve.
“I was just about to step outside and I read the text that said, 'There's a bear on your front yard.' So I stopped, I came back inside and then all, you know, we went crazy because we have a lot of pets and we wanted to make sure everyone was inside and accounted for," said resident Andrea Heyl.
Heyl teaches at nearby Holy Redeemer Elementary School, where she said her students were on bear watch Wednesday.
“It’s a pretty big bear and I don’t want it coming back," Heyl said.
“A black bear is a dangerous animal there is no reason a black bear should be here. The county should be doing something to capture said black bear and releasing it in north Montgomery County, up county, right? They're fine with bears right? They have land," Velinsky said.
Brian Eyler with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources said it's surprising, but not unusual, to have a bear come that close to the Beltway. Eyler said the bear was likely following a body of water like Rock Creek and simply walked across Beach Drive and up onto Culver Street.
Residents living along Beach Drive should bring in their bird feeders and any outside food to keep bears away, Eyler said.
