A second black bear sighting in Narragansett, Rhode Island took place just one day after the first. This time, the encounter was too close for comfort for one resident.
Brenda McCloskey was out doing yard work when she noticed a large black bear coming towards her. She rushed to her Subaru and jumped inside, believing she would be safe there. She didn’t expect the bear to know how to open car doors, let alone that it would be so persistent in his attempt to get inside.
“At first he tried to get in the driver’s side,” McCloskey tells NBC10 of the encounter. “He was looking directly at me and then he decided to go around to the other side and that’s where my lunch was. He opened the car door halfway. I was to close it several times but I couldn’t lock it until it was completely closed so it was a tug-of-war for what seemed like an eternity.”
In between pulling on the door to close it, McCloskey was also on her phone dialing the police and her husband, and snapping photos of the bear. She knew no one would believe her story if she didn’t take pictures.
However, they didn’t snap the incident in all its glory. “Oh, he had both feet up on top of the roof of the car at one point,” the woman says. “When [police] got here he had one paw on the car and was biting at the door handle.”
McCloskey knows that she could have easily driven off and be safe, but that would have meant hurting the bear by running it over. She wanted to avoid that, so she struggled to keep it out of her car until police arrived. Luckily, when the cops came closer, the bear was spooked by the sirens and the lights and was off on its way.
Narragansett Police urges residents to avoid any type of contact with a black bear in case of a sighting, and calling them or the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Law Enforcement immediately.
“At first he tried to get in the driver’s side,” McCloskey tells NBC10 of the encounter. “He was looking directly at me and then he decided to go around to the other side and that’s where my lunch was. He opened the car door halfway. I was to close it several times but I couldn’t lock it until it was completely closed so it was a tug-of-war for what seemed like an eternity.”
In between pulling on the door to close it, McCloskey was also on her phone dialing the police and her husband, and snapping photos of the bear. She knew no one would believe her story if she didn’t take pictures.
However, they didn’t snap the incident in all its glory. “Oh, he had both feet up on top of the roof of the car at one point,” the woman says. “When [police] got here he had one paw on the car and was biting at the door handle.”
McCloskey knows that she could have easily driven off and be safe, but that would have meant hurting the bear by running it over. She wanted to avoid that, so she struggled to keep it out of her car until police arrived. Luckily, when the cops came closer, the bear was spooked by the sirens and the lights and was off on its way.
Narragansett Police urges residents to avoid any type of contact with a black bear in case of a sighting, and calling them or the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Law Enforcement immediately.
SHEESHHHH— I’m scared just looking at this picture lol. A black bear fights to get into a woman’s car & she snapped this pic. What an experience.. hear from her @ 6. Pic Ctsy- Narragansett Animal Control. @NBC10 pic.twitter.com/D7SVy9RixP
— Sam Read (@NBC10_Sam) May 28, 2019