SC neighborhood gets unexpected visit from bear, but he's sent packing

A South Carolina neighborhood got an unexpected visitor Tuesday.

A young male black bear was seen roaming a residential and retail area, and walking along a well-traveled road, near an elementary school in Boiling Springs, wspa.com reported.

In fact, Spartanburg County School District 2 reported that the road near Shoally Creek Elementary was closed to traffic because emergency responders were trying to safely remove the bear without incident.

They were successful, but the bear made them work for it.

Members of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Boiling Springs Fire Department, Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office and Spartanburg County Animal Control first located the bear, only to see him run into a nearby fenced-in yard — where they corralled him, goupstate.com reported.

That was when the 75-pound bear climbed a tree, according to foxcarolina.com.

Emergency responders were prepared, and struck the bear with a tranquilizer dart, wspa.com reported.

As that happened, DNR employees fanned out, holding the edges of a what turned into a trampoline, goupstate.com reported. It looked like something from a Looney Tunes cartoon, but it worked perfectly: The website reported there were no injuries when the bear fell from the tree.

“The bear was totally sedated and put in a transport cage,” neighborhood resident Andrew Hoskins told goupstate.com, adding that he was first alerted to the bear's presence by the barking of his dog. “It was an interesting day for sure.”

After being placed inside a cage, the bear was taken to the mountains to be released, according to DNR. The bear traveled into the neighborhood because it seemed to be pushed out of its natural territory, foxcarolina.com reported. No additional details were given.

This story was originally published May 22, 2018 at 10:00 PM with the headline "SC neighborhood gets unexpected visit from bear, but he's sent packing."