Man hears growling in garage – and bear clamps down on his head, PA couple says
.png "A Pennsylvania man was attacked by a black bear that slipped into the garage of his Valley Township home.")
A Pennsylvania man was left bruised and bleeding but alive after a black bear attacked him in the garage of his Montour County home, news outlets reported.
John Swartz, of Valley Township, was filling his pool with water at about 9 p.m. on July 27, he told WNEP. Having finished, he headed back into the garage to turn off the hose, not realizing a wild animal had slipped inside.
“I made about five steps and reached down to turn the water off, and I think as soon as I touched the spigot, I got pummeled,” he told the outlet. “It was something huge. It hurt, and it was loud, like a growl. I got hit against the shelves, and I remember holding my head.”
It was too dark to see but Swartz immediately knew it was a bear, he told Northcentralpa.com.
The bear must have been tempted to wander into the garage by the garbage, Swartz told the outlet. He hadn’t noticed the bear right next to him in the garage, and they startled each other.
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“I heard this commotion and at first, I thought he had tripped over some of my craft stuff,” Swartz’s wife, Lori, told the outlet. “I thought, ‘I’m going to hear about this.’”
Swartz can be seen falling to the ground, then scrambling to his feet and running, video shared with TV station WOLF shows.
The bear had bitten Swartz’s head during the attack, the outlet reported.
“I’ll never forget. It was horrible, but we’re very lucky that’s all that happened,” Lori told the station. “He has a couple of wounds, but they’ll heal.”
Wildlife officials have set up traps in the area to capture the bear, the outlet reported, though Swartz said he doesn’t blame the bear for what happened.
“It’s very understandable as to why the bear did what it did. I surprised (it) and it surprised me,” he told the station. “It had one way out and it was through me.”
Valley Township is roughly 50 miles west of downtown Philadelphia.
This story was originally published August 1, 2023 at 12:55 PM with the headline "Man hears growling in garage – and bear clamps down on his head, PA couple says."