By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor
Roger Faulkner has seen deer, raccoons, foxes and all sorts of wildlife in his Williamsburg backyard on West Main Street, but nothing prepared him for what he saw Friday morning.
“In my wildest dreams, I never thought I’d see a bear,” he said.
Dozens of people across Williamsburg saw the adult black bear, which visited the town in the area between the Farm View Apartments, Kentucky Splash Water Park and Wal-Mart on Highway 92 West.
Faulkner was getting ready to take his 12-year-old son Garrett to basketball camp at about 8:45 a.m. Friday morning. Garrett was already on the porch when he began yelling at his dad that a black bear was in the backyard. Faulkner thought his son saw a dog, until he saw the bear himself come up over a ridge. He said another passerby, Chris Apple, almost hit the animal with his car.
“It was skittish when it saw us,” Faulkner said. “It was full grown. We were probably 40 yards from it.”
Faulkner called police and a little while later, Williamsburg Police Officer Shawn Jackson was the first officer to spot the bear.
Jackson said an employee reading gas meters had just spotted it when Jackson arrived near the Farm View Apartments.
“He was as pale as a ghost,” Jackson said of the meter reader. “He said it stood up on its hind legs and was monstrous.”
The bear wandered into a nearby field, adjacent to the parking lot for Kentucky Splash Water Park.
Officers, animal control and others nearby — including the county judge-executive — went to the scene and helped make a human perimeter, which likely prevented the bear from nearing the water park. Black bears are generally afraid of humans. They are not carnivorous and rarely attack humans unless provoked.
After more than an hour of being watched by law enforcement, the bear then crossed Hwy. 92 and headed into a wooded, hilly area behind Wal-Mart.
“Luckily, the bear did exactly what we wanted it to do to keep it safe and the public safe,” Jackson said.
Jackson, a Williamsburg native, said Friday was the first time he had seen a bear inside the city, but it might not be the last.
This is the black bear’s mating season, and males — especially the younger males that are driven away by those who are bigger — travel farther in search of food or a mate.
“Black bears are pretty mild, unless provoked,” Jackson said. “They’re not a danger to people, but again, they are wild animals and they are unpredictable.”
After watching police video of the bear in the field and crossing Hwy. 92, Fish & Wildlife Officer Jason Bolton said the bear was likely a young, adult male weighting more than 200 pounds.
Officials weren’t sure where the bear had come from, but Faulkner believed it came into his yard from an area recently purchased by the school district for football fields.
Residents who spot a bear should contact local law enforcement or the Fish & Wildlife Service. They should not attempt to approach or harm the bear. Both shooting or intentionally feeding a bear is a crime.
