Bear Chases Down 6th Grader Outside Alaska Home
on Nov 05, 2020
Sixth-grader Walther Jim from Haines, Alaska was inside his home with his mom, Shannon Caton, cooking dinner when she asked him to go outside and lock the car doors.
“Walther Jim’s mom had four pounds of meat simmering in pasta sauce on the stove,” Alaska Public reported.
A Haines family got their Halloween scare early this year when a large bear charged a young man all the way up to the family’s front porch. The incident is among the record number of bear interactions this season.https://t.co/igktwnSrhb
— Alaska Public Media News (@AKpublicnews) November 5, 2020
Jim’s mother said that she wanted to prevent bears from getting into the car and that’s why she asked him to complete the task in the first place. Jim opened the door and stepped out onto the porch and didn’t make it far before he was face to face with a bear.
“The bear was, like, 10 feet away from me, looking at me and I jumped, and I tried to open the door. And then it started to run after me. And I got inside the house, and then I told my mom that there was a bear,” he told Alaska Public.
Caton said he was trembling with fear as he knocked over packages and ran into the corner of the cabin screaming to her that a bear was on the porch. She opened the door and sure enough, the bear was standing right there and now attempting to come inside the house.
Caton,“Just stared him right in the eyes and maniac growled and screamed. Just lunged at him to get him to back away and slam the door and then grab the shotgun, and then my dog chased him a little bit but he wasn’t backing down. I just unloaded for four rounds of the 12-gauge buckshot.”
In the six years that she’s lived there, Caton says she’s never seen one be that aggressive. She, the state’s Department of Fish and Game and the Wildlife Troopers believe it’s because the bears are low on food this year. So if you’re in the Alaskan area, make sure you are prepared.
