An unwelcome visitor made its way into a local retirement community this week, but the visitor wasn’t a person. It was a black bear!
The bear broke into St. Andrew’s Village just after 11 p.m. Tuesday night.
Charlene Elliott was one of the lead certified nursing assistants working.
“I was sitting there at our nurse’s station and I heard a big crash,” Elliott told Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek. “I thought it was one of the aides that fell, I got up and I’d seen it was a bear coming down the hall towards me!”
Pictures provided to Channel 11 show how the black bear got in. There are visible claw marks on a windowsill, and in another picture, shattered glass from a broken window.
“Going through my mind was, ‘get the thing out of here!’” Elliott said.
The bear was inside St. Andrew’s Village for about 15 minutes and was running through the hallways.
“I told them all to shut the doors. Get the doors all shut!” Elliott recalled.
The bear even went into some residential rooms — getting nose-to-nose with one of them in bed, Elliott said.
“Please do not move, touch him, because he could have mauled him. I mean, one swipe,” Elliott recalled telling the residents.
She said one resident wanted to feed it a sandwich!
“She’s like ‘Well, go ahead and give it my sandwich!’ and I’m like, ‘No, we can’t do that!” Elliott said.
But, employees did use food — Rice Krispies Treats to be exact — to lure the bear out of the building.
Elliott said they also used a walker to hit the bear toward the door.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission set up a trap using donuts and other pastries and were able to catch the bear Thursday morning.
Presbyterian Senior Living, the group that owns St. Andrew’s Village, sent a statement to Channel 11.
On June 3, at approximately 11:10 PM, a juvenile black bear entered St. Andrew’s Village after breaking through a window. Thanks to the swift actions and bravery of our incredible team which included attempts to lure the bear to safety with Rice Krispies treats, the bear was safely guided out of the building without harm to residents or team members.
We are incredibly proud of our team’s quick thinking and dedication to ensuring the safety of everyone in our community. To prevent future wildlife encounters, the game warden safely relocated the bear to a more suitable habitat today and all bird feeders on our campus were removed.
We appreciate the support of our residents, families, and local authorities in managing this unique situation, and we remain committed to maintaining a safe and secure environment for all.
“We’re going to try to find it and get it away from that area to a more suitable place for the bear,” said Lt. Andy Harvey of the PA Game Commission. “Hopefully, there’s some food sources around there where it can thrive.”
The game commission said it is rare for bears to enter buildings, but it can happen. They said to make sure there’s no food waste and garbage outside your home that a bear can get into, and make sure you regularly clean your grill
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