West Hartford resident Mary Petras took video of a bear swimming in her pool on a hot afternoon last week.
By Ronni Newton
Bears in West Hartford seem to be making themselves right at home at people’s homes this summer.
Resident Mary Petras sent us the above video of a bear she found swimming in her pool on the steamy afternoon of July 27.
“It just was a 90-degree afternoon and it looked like it needed to cool off. It was a surprise to us – luckily we were inside and were able to get the video as he bathed in the pool on the steps,” Petras said in an email.
Petras said the bear looked to be fairly large, about 250 pounds she estimated. It did not have a tag.
“He crushed the fence to get in and out of the yard,” she said. This was the second bear in as many weeks to wander through Petras’ yard. She said she saw a bear the previous week between her home and her next-door-neighbor’s home, but said that one appeared smaller.
On July 22, High Wood Road resident Jeff Grody found a bear in the den – his den. The bear left the way it had entered, through a screen door, and luckily the only damage to Grody’s home was to the screen. Grody said he has seen about a half-dozen bears in his yard this year alone.
The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection set a trap in Grody’s yard the afternoon after it had entered his house, but no word on whether or not that bear, which also appeared untagged, had been captured.
On July 16, a tagged bear was found swimming in a pool belonging to Midlands resident Linda Geisler. It was the second time she had seen a bear in her yard this year.
