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Bear scare in Falls Village

Bear scare in Falls Village
The Rhoades family had an unwelcome visitor Saturday, April 15, in the form of a hungry bear, which broke in and helped itself from the refrigerator. 
Photo by Sandy Rhoades

FALLS VILLAGE — The Rhoades family had an unwelcome visitor Saturday afternoon, April 15.

Sandy Rhoades said around 2:45 p.m. he and his wife Elizabeth,  heard a sound from the kitchen that they assumed was their Michael, who is visiting from Wisconsin, where he works as a biologist for the National Park Service.

Opening the door to the kitchen, instead of their son, it was a bear raiding the refrigerator.

“It scared the crap out of us,” said Rhoades.

They called 911 and then the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Rhoades said Monday, April 17, that DEEP had set a humanitarian trap, baited with doughnuts, at his home. If captured, the bear will be relocated.

 

UPDATE: Rhoades called the Lakeville Journal Tuesday afternoon, April 18, to report that DEEP had successfully trapped the bear. Rhoades added that the animal had broken into other nearby homes on Route 7 (between the Emergency Services Center and the bridge over the Housatonic River) and as such was taken away to be euthanized.

Patrick L. Sullivan

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