WESTPORT, Conn. (WCBS 880) — Police in Connecticut are warning residents in Westport about a black bear that has been spotted in the neighborhood.
The curious bear reached out and touched Peter Crouse as he was trimming a bush outside his home on Wednesday afternoon.
"I felt a bump on the back of my leg and I turned around and it was a bear, which was surprising," he said. "He seemingly smelled something on my pantleg and was sniffing it and the problem was he grabbed my leg with his paw and then pulled himself into me and then he went up smelling. I hit him in the nose with the branches I had and he seemed confused and tried to like eat them. And I just hit him again and he dropped back and he went back about 10 feet."
Crouse said he didn't have time to panic. He kept his cool and he was able to back away.
The bear also ventured into a screened-in sun porch and then plopped down next to a backyard jungle gym.
The bear was not aggressive and there were no injuries.
Crouse said he fears for the bear because he believes it has lost its fear of humans and associates homes with sources of food. He thinks more encounters are inevitable.
There have been multiple bear sightings this season in suburban Fairfield County and Westport Police Chief Foti Koskinas is urging people to take precautions.
"So we're asking people for the time being to not have bird feeders, to not leave food outside, really secure their garbage and garbage cans, and even look we're a community that we're taking composting seriously and have a great impact on the environment, but the bears are known to go to compost piles because they look at it as a food choice," Koskinas said. "We want the safety of the bear and we want the bear ultimately to go back into the deep wooded areas. We do have a concern of our residents and again the concern is children playing outside, small pets."
State wildlife officials responded to the northern section of Westport and fired beanbags to let the bear know it was getting too close.
Last week, in New Canaan, a bear was spotted eating a fawn that was trapped in a fence.