Bear stalks east Carson

Supervisor Greg Smith said he thought a burglar was making a racket on his backyard deck late Tuesday - until he flipped on the deck lights.

"And there I was staring face-to-face with this just huge black bear," Smith said. "The only thing between me and him was a sliding-glass door."

Smith grabbed a handgun, told his family to get into one room, and called the sheriff's office.

"I wanted to look like Clint Eastwood but I'm sure I looked more like Don Knotts," he said, referring to the actor's bumbling character Barney from television's "The Andy Griffith Show."

The bear was going after Smith's bird-feeder when officers arrived.

"Right about the time they got to my house, the darn bear jumped down off the deck," Smith said. "The cop asked if I'd cover him on the way back to his car in case the bear came around front."

Carl Lackey, a Nevada Division of Wildlife biologist, said that if this is the same bear captured a week ago in east Carson's Timberline neighborhood, where Smith also lives, the bear would be euthanized.

"We can't support this bear if he's going to keep going after homes," he said. "And we're pretty sure it's the same one. There is plentiful food up in the foothills right now - he's showing us he's dependent (on humans)."

archive