Bear spooks Charlotte-area neighborhood. ‘Watch your kids and pets.’
A woman warned her neighbors to “watch your kids and pets” after snapping photos of a bear in their neighborhood Friday night.
“Urgent!!” she posted on Facebook. “Black bear seen in the neighborhood!!”
The woman said she and her husband spotted the bear while driving along Prairie Rose Lane in Huntersville’s StoneGate Farms neighborhood. McDowell Creek is nearby.
“We spotted the bear at the corner of Rolling Meadows Lane,” she posted. “The bear went behind the wooded area after we drove towards it. Please be careful and watch your kids and pets.”
Some neighbors were shocked to learn a bear had just passed their homes.
“We were just walking past there!” one woman posted.
“That’s across from my house,” another woman posted. “Crazy.”
Others took the bear sighting in stride. Sort of.
“There are always bear sightings in Huntersville this time of year!” another neighbor posted of the young-looking bear. “A little nervous that it’s our neighborhood! Where there’s a baby there’s a momma!!”
One neighbor even took the bear’s side.
“It’s more like humans invaded the bears territory, destroyed their feeding grounds for green lawns and swimming pools, so they are hungry and coming to take theirs back,” he posted.
On its “CoExist With Bears” page, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission advises covering your trash cans and not leaving any food exposed that could tempt bears to approach your home. And whatever you do, never approach a bear, officials warn.