A Napatak resident was woken up by a black bear trying to enter her home through her bedroom window Wednesday morning.
Samantha Plunz, who has lived in the community just south of La Ronge since 2016, said she was sleeping with the windows open due to the heat when the bear tried to get into her house.
“I sat up and I was literally a foot away from this bear’s face,” she said. “The bear was trying to get into our bedroom window so I jumped up and hollered, and it stepped back a little bit then I slammed the window shut. Me and husband got up and came running out, and it’s in my kitchen.”
The bear was scared off with the help of conservation officers firing warning shots after rummaging the kitchen and taking a loaf of bread with it but it came back later that night.
She said it was nerve-wracking having the bear in her home.
“(It’s) unnerving, unsettling, especially with it coming back again,” she said. “It obviously wants something in my house.”
Plunz said the bear caught her and her husband off-guard, as they have guns they could have used to scare the bear off but those were locked away.
Plunz, a life-long resident of northern Saskatchewan, said she’s never dealt with such a persistent bear.
“I grew up in the bush and I‘ve never had one that’s so persistent even after having warning shots,” she said. “Growing up up north, dad would just shoot in the air and they would take off and never really come back, but this one here is still coming back.”
She said a bear trap has been set up in the area and conservation officers are patrolling each day, but the persistent animal continues to roam during the evenings and nights while avoiding the trap.
(PHOTO: Top, a black bear looking through Samantha Plunz’s window. Bottom, the bear rummaged through Plunz’s kitchen before being scared off. Both photos courtesy of Samantha Plunz.)