Wild doorbell cam video shows woman coming face-to-face with bear while walking dog
A Florida woman says on occasion, she'll send her dog to discourage the cats from gathering on her front porch.
But early Thursday morning, what she went to discourage was much larger.
"My brother called me last night cracking up and said, 'Gina, only you can scream like that,'" resident Gina Helsel said.
Helsel said her dog let her know it was time to clear the porch of cats. It was normal stuff until a bear poked its head around the corner.
"The bear was getting in the neighbor's trash and I caught it in the act," Helsel said.
The good news is once Helsel and her dog took a scram, the bear did, too.
"The bear's mostly focused on the dog, it basically lunges, does a bit of a bluff charge. When her and the dog retreat, the bear runs away," said Mike Orlando, a biologist with Florida Fish and Wildlife.
Orlando explained that the bear demonstrated normal behavior and that it likely was not an aggressive bear.
"They just all startled each other, you know, she didn't expect to have a bear sitting there, and the bear wasn't prepared to have her show up with the dog," Orlando said.
"I'm always looking for gators, always looking for snakes, and a great fear of coyotes, but bears I didn't really think about," Helsel said.
In the confusion, Helsel seemed to struggle with the door.
"I did fumble with it, and it wasn't even closed all the way because I never close it all the way when I take him out," Helsel said.
Helsel's Daytona Beach neighborhood backs up to a conservation area, a natural habitat for bears, so it's important to make sure garbage isn't easily accessible.
"Some way to keep the garbage secure, so that you're not bringing the bear from the woods into your neighborhood, where you can have a run-in like she had," Orlando said.
Helsel says she holds no ill will toward the bear.
"I am glad the bear's OK, I don't want anything to happen to the bear. The bear was — it lives here," Helsel said.
