A man staying at his Tennessee vacation home ended up using a can of bear spray to ward off a bruin that charged him outside the garage.
Cortlandt Koerwitz of Sacramento, Calif., said his daughters were the first to spot the bear going through the trash at the Lake Tahoe vacation house while they were in the garage packing coolers for a Fourth of July boat trip.
“The girls said that the bear, instead of running away like normal, the bear kind of came towards them,” Koerwitz told KABC-TV.
Koerwitz, whose actions were recorded by a security camera, grabbed a can of bear spray he keeps next to the garage door and used it just as the large animal turned its attention to him.
“I just kind of caught something out of my left eye, and it was the bear rushing in. We were both startled, and I just shot the spray. And the overspray from that, you know, the shot hit me and hit my eyes,” Koerwitz told KCRA-TV.
He said bears are a common sight in the area, but it was unusual to see one of the animals displaying such aggressive behavior.
“So, yeah, wasn’t a lot of options if I didn’t have that bear spray,” Koerwitz said.
