Police in Burbank, California, encountered a surprising scene when they responded to reports of abear sightinglast week.
When officers arrived on the residential street of Paseo Redondo around 3:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon, they found a bear enjoying a soak in a jacuzzi in the backyard of one of the homes. The bear’s relaxing moment was short-lived, however.
“After a short dip, the bear made his way over the wall,” the Burbank Police Department wrote in a news release, noting the animal was last spotted sleeping in a tree around 6 p.m. that same day.
The department later shared thedelightful videoon its Facebook page. “This #bear is beating the heat in Burbank! Officers are on-scene after the bear was spotted in a hillside neighborhood before taking a dip to cool off,” read the post, which included a link to some safety tips for citizens should they have their own bear encounter.
Burbank police were surprised to find a bear enjoying a soak in a homeowner’s jacuzzi.Burbank PD/MEGA
Burbank PD/MEGA
The Burbank bear’s sneaky jacuzzi soak came amid a blistering heat wave in Southern California. Burbank was under a heat advisory through 8:00 p.m. Sunday. The heat is expected to continue, with highs reaching over 90 degrees Fahrenheit through at least Monday, according to theNational Weather Service.
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There have been several bear sightings across the country in recent months. In June, Florida beachgoers got a shock when a blackbear cubwas spottedcasually swimming in the oceanbefore striding onto the shore at a crowded beach in Destin.
“A bear just swam from way out in the ocean to shore in Destin. Insane,“tweetedChris Barron, an eyewitness who filmed a viral video of the incident.
Barron told Storyful at the time that he and his fellow beachgoers thought the animal was a dog when they first noticed it in the water. After it came onshore, the cub “took off into the sand dunes,” the eyewitness said.
“I think most people were shocked instead of being scared,” Barron added. “No one expected to see a bear in the Gulf of Mexico.”
A second witnessagreed it was an unexpected sight. “A man was yelling out ‘Bear!’ You would expect ‘Shark!’ or ‘Dolphin!’ but not ‘Bear!’ It came out of the Gulf and [looked] tired but relieved,” Jennifer Majors Smith toldAL.com.
“I was a little frightened because it was right there, and I didn’t know what it would do,” he toldUSA Today.
In the home video, Oppenheimer appeared shocked to see the bear near his chair. He startled before picking up the pillow in his lap as if preparing to defend himself.
“It was almost in front of me,” he told the outlet. “We immediately made eye contact.”
After a brief standoff between the man and the bear, the bear sauntered off in the direction it came from.
Oppenheimer said he spotted the same bear in his backyard earlier that same day. It ate from a bird feeder and later attempted to raid his neighbor’s garbage can.
source: people.com
