'Glad she can't open doors': Bear's Ring camera close up awakens Florida woman in the middle of the night
MOUNT PLYMOUTH, Fla. - A Florida woman was woken up in the middle of the night after a mother bear got up close and personal with the home's Ring camera.
Elizabeth Martin said she's become accustomed to the family of bears wandering around her Lake County home all throughout the night – but not to the degree of what woke her up at 1:30 a.m.
Martin's Ring camera shows the mother bear paws up on the front door with her face in the center of the camera peering from side to side.
"It happened several weeks ago but we have them on camera almost every night or several times a week, but I was awoken by our ring doorbell alert going off," said Martin.
Not only do the bears wander through the front yard, but they have also found their way into Martin's deep freezer in the past.
Credit: Elizabeth Martin
"When we first moved in the mother bear dragged our deep freezer off of our porch and emptied it out in the yard like it's big huge, heavy, I couldn’t even stand it up by myself, but [she] dragged it out and emptied all the contents out all over the yard," said Martin.
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The bears had a feast that day. Since then, Martin said she's secured the deep freezer to the ground and put a padlock on the deep freezer.
"We’re from Louisiana originally and all our family at home is like I knew y'all had gators like we did, I didn’t know you had bears. I can’t believe there’s bears," Martin said.
Last week, a Sanford resident snapped a couple of photos of a giant bear ready for hibernation snacking inside his garage.
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Andrew Scheirer told FOX 35 News he had a run-in with the beefy bear in the Preserve at the Astor Farms subdivision on Oct. 11. Scheirer said he was outside trimming his Palm Trees when he found the bear sitting in his garage.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the presence of bears is not a problem or threat to one's safety.
Bear are typically driven by their need to eat and have a sense of smell that can detect odors over a mile away. Problems tend to arise when bears gain access to food sources such as pet foods, garbage, barbeque grills, bird seed, or even livestock.
Black bears are normally too shy to risk contact with humans, but their powerful need to find food can overwhelm this fear.