Kicker: Bear scare

NICK EICHER, HOST: You know I get over to WORLD headquarters pretty frequently. It’s a beautiful place in Asheville, North Carolina, surrounded by the Pisgah National Forest, so as such it pays to be, as they say, “bear aware.”

Well, one Asheville man is hoping the bears might start returning the favor.

David Oppenheimer was out in his carport at the end of the day, feet propped up, reading, relaxing when an adult black bear just walked up, right between him and his doorway, when his door-cam chimed.

Imagine the shock. And because the camera captured the moment, you don’t have to imagine, he was shocked.

The audio here from TV station W-L-O-S.

DAVID OPPENHEIMER: I didn't want to startle it and jump out of the chair or something like that. And so I guess we were both waiting to see what was gonna happen next and the bear took off. I was grateful for that.

Grateful is the right word. Yeah, they just stared at each other for, I counted more than three seconds. Just frozen.

Which evidently was the right thing to do as this wildlife expert said in the TV story.

JODY WILLIAMS: That bear does not look at you as food. It is more scared of you than you are of it.

Yeah, okay. That bear was pretty poker face then, because Oppenheimer’s expression … he was terrified. And I don’t blame him.

But now he gets to say he stared down a black bear and lived to tell.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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