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Intense video shows woman's face-to-face encounter with a bear

The woman texted her son for help. He thought she was joking.
 By 
Brian Koerber
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

A woman distracted by her phone found herself face-to-face with a bear.

Teliece Sander of Lake Mary, Florida, was playing on her phone in her garage when she looked up to find a bear in her driveway. The animal hung around for a few minutes and came so close that she could feel its breath before finally retreating back into the woods.

Teliece says that after noticing the bear, she texted her son Colton a photo of the beast, along with the message "Help me!"


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"I thought she got a new app or something," Colton told WTHR.

Finally, after telling her son to not make a lot of noise, he understood that this was indeed a real bear.

Teliece then started recording the incident on her phone. At one point the bear comes within just a few inches, and Teliece says thats she even felt the animal's breath.

Via Giphy

Teliece managed to stay calm, fearing that the bear may attack if she made any sudden moves.

"I felt like, if I did some kind of knee jerk, that that might scare him and I didn't know what his reaction would be," Teliece told WTHR.

Fortunately, Colton, who is 6-foot 6-inches tall and weighs 325 pounds, walked up behind his mother and the bear eventually retreats back into the woods.

Officials believe that because the animal was not fearful of humans that it may have been fed in the past.

"That type of behavior is extremely concerning to us, and we consider the bear a public safety threat,” said Mike Orlando of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

WTHR reports that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission have set up a trap in the area in hopes of catching the bear.

Bonus: 100 years of kitten beauty in 60 seconds

Topics Animals

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Brian Koerber

Brian was the Culture Editor and has been working at Mashable on the web culture desk since 2014.

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