A home security camera captured the moment a man and a bear noticed each other, and it’s hard to say who was more surprised.
The footage, obtained by CNN, shows homeowner David Oppenheimer lounging in his backyard in Asheville, North Carolina, when a black bear sauntered in and caught him off guard. the man and animal caught sight of each other, and they looked equally shocked.
Oppenheimer told the news network that he was first alerted to the presence of the intruder on Tuesday when he heard an alarm from his motion detector, but he didn’t see anything when he turned around to look.
“But about a minute later, the bear came along and was practically in front of me,” he told CNN.
The video shows Oppenheimer and the bear making eye contact, with Oppenheimer gripping a pillow on his chair in alarm.
The bear then ran away, he told CNN.
Black bears are not foreign to the area, Oppenheimer said. They are “used to people, and they encounter people all the time, especially dog walkers.”
Oppenheimer said he’s thinking of attaching a rearview mirror to his chair to avoid any future would-be sneak attacks.
Watch the clip below:
A man relaxing outside looked up to find himself in a bear stare-down https://t.co/i6gr2OSRjt pic.twitter.com/7TVhw1YROr
— CNN (@CNN) April 16, 2023
