Minneapolis (WCCO) — Cottonwood Court in Centreville, a neighborhood in the suburbs of Minnesota, looked more like Cape Pooh last week. A young black bear who went for a walk frightened some teenagers.
17-year-old Hailey Nelson and 15-year-old Dori Arndt were gardening outside the home of their 17-year-old friend Hailey Nyberg on Tuesday afternoon. When Nelson was working, she thought she saw Nyberg’s dog walking past her eyes.
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“We want money, so we decided to pull some weeds, we just pull some weeds, just talk, listen to some music, turn our heads, this is just a black laboratory,” Nelson said.
A camera in a front window of Nyberg captured the moment when he realized this: it was not a domestic dog.
“It’s a bear!” Nelson said.
Nelson and Arndt jumped in shock and went straight to the front door. But there is a small problem-it is locked.
“So I knocked on the door and said,’Let’s go in!’ screaming our heads, just want to go in! Then [Hailey Nyberg] Put her head around the corner,” Nelson said.
(Credit: Brian Niberg)
Father Brian Niberg put Nelson and Antra into the house, and then warned his daughter to hide.
“I heard their screams and my dad walked outside, like,’Why are you still here? A bear just walked through our… front yard! I just thought,’What?'” Hailey Niberg said. “Then he was like,’Go in!'”
Brian said that when he heard their screams for the first time, he thought these girls were swarmed by bees.
“I think Hailee and I, we all heard screams, we all thought, you know, they might have gotten into a yellow jacket den,” Brian said. “They were just horrified, screaming, knocking on the door too fast.”
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The Niberg family said that after watching this video, they were amused by Nelson and Arndt’s priority when fleeing danger.
From left to right: Hailey Nyberg, Hailey Nelson and Dori Arndt (Image source: CBS)
“I find it interesting that the first thing Dori goes to is her water bottle [laughs]! Said Hayley Nieberg. “She can’t remember anything except her water bottle!” “
“They all picked up their phones,” Brian said. “You can’t put your phone outside.”
Brian said the bear appeared to be a teenager who might be one and a half years old, about twice the size of their 80-pound black Labrador retriever.
“[The bear] He picked up his pace a little bit, but you can see him turning his head a bit to watch the girls scream as they get up,” Brian said.
He said that when the bear started walking towards Main Street and County Road 14, he was worried.
“A few times… it turned around and walked towards our yard, and then it wanted to cross the main street, there was a lot of traffic,” he said.
The bear began to walk through the nearby backyard and then disappeared into nature.
(Credit: Brian Niberg)
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said that when bears wander in residential areas, they usually get lost and look for food. Black bears usually eat berries, which are scarce this summer due to drought. If you encounter a bear, DNR says you should leave it alone, give it space, and let it find its way out of the area. They also recommend removing bird feeders and trash from the yard and monitoring pets when they are outdoors.
Hailey, Hailey and Dori are very happy that the video went viral on the Internet, with more than 30,000 views WCCO’s Instagram page In a few hours.
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“The look on their faces when they run is kind of priceless,” Brian said.
