LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — Janel DeBoer had lived in her Fayette County home for 22 years without ever seeing a black bear, until her security camera captured one roaming her yard Monday morning.
"As soon as I get up, I always check my phone, of course, and I had noticed that the bling was going off in the night, so I pulled it up," DeBoer said.
The footage showed a black bear moving through her yard — something she never expected to see.
"I looked at it and I went, surely this is not what I'm thinking it is," DeBoer said.
The bear walked through a path near her garden but left her tomatoes untouched, leaving only a few small indentations in the ground. A neighbor's garbage can was not as lucky.
"I think he emptied my neighbor's garbage can all over the driveway," DeBoer said.
The experience has made DeBoer more cautious, but state bear coordinator John Hast says residents have no reason to panic — as long as they give the animals space.
"Let the neighbors know in the area that they've got a bear and, you know, we've never, we've never had any issues out of them up in this neck of the woods," Hast said.
Hast says bear sightings in Fayette County are becoming more common, and he believes this is the same bear previously spotted at Masterson Station.
"I think this is all the same bear that went through Masterson Station," Hast said.
Hast says the bear is likely a young male pushed out by older bears during mating season and is now wandering in search of food and new territory.
"It's just kind of an evolutionary trait of bears," Hast said.
