Bear eludes capture, causes uproar in Wilmington neighborhood

Show Caption Hide Caption Witnesses describe seeing bear in Trolley Square area Police have several streets blocked off in Wilmington following the sighting of a bear Thursday morning in the city's Trolley Square area. Video also provided by John J. Jankowski Jr. 12/5/19

The bear that had eluded dozens of authorities all day – "posing" for social media photos and causing a lot of excitement throughout a Wilmington neighborhood – was still at large Thursday night.

Around 5 p.m., authorities appeared to have packed up for the night and the state's environmental department issued a press release announcing the closing of Alapocas Run State Park due to the presence of a black bear.

About an hour before, police blocked off a section of Alapocas Drive near the park, not far from where it was last spotted. Authorities carrying what appeared to be tranquilizer guns, went into the park on foot.

The beast had shaken free of its pursuers for a couple hours before being seen just before dusk.

Much of the region woke up Thursday to reports of a bear running around the city near Brew HaHa in Trolley Square.

An uproar ensued, with police and wildlife officers chasing the animal and bystanders trying to get a look.

Officers said they hoped they would be able to tranquilize the animal if they could, though they warned that if it got too close to bystanders they might have to shoot it.

Nick Bailey was doing fencing work near the baseball field on Thursday when he saw the bear. He first heard about it that morning through the news coverage.

“How funny would it be if it came over here this way?” he said he had thought. He and another worker first saw it between 11:30 and noon, and then again shortly before 3 pm.

“From far away, I thought he was a cub,” he said.

But then a closer look, 50 feet away, he realized that wasn’t the case.

“He’s a big boy,” Bailey said. “Or a big girl.”

Wilmington police put out a cryptic statement at 11:15 a.m. that roads were no longer closed "as the bear is no longer in our jurisdiction. Residents and motorists can resume normal activity."

That apparently didn't mean they'd caught the bear, as they called for people to report sightings to Fish and Wildlife Natural Resources Police.

Pennsylvania officials lent Delaware officials a bear trap. The bear was hit by a tranquilizer dart in a Trolley Square backyard, said Jerry Czech, game warden in Pennsylvania, but the dart fell out as the bear was climbing over fences and decks.

The goal is to lure the bear into the trap, Czech said. Once the bear is far enough into the cylindrical trap, it steps on a lever that seals the door shut. Then officials can get the bear to a safer habitat.

The bait? Doughnuts.

Perhaps stirred up by all the fuss around it, the bear was on the move most of the day. It was seen in a backyard, and an alley, and later spotted shortly on railroad tracks behind Acme. By late morning, the trail led to Brandywine Park.

A swarm of officers responded to the area around Acme and Brew HaHa by about 8 a.m. Thursday.

North DuPont Street was closed for a stretch of several blocks that police kept expanding. At one point, a police car could be seen driving on a sidewalk on Delaware Avenue.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control asked for the area to be cleared, and police urged people to go into Brew HaHa or to Delaware Avenue.

Police also released a statement asking residents in the area between Delaware Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue, and Lincoln Street and Rodney Street, to shelter in place.

The bear sightings came a day after several drivers reported seeing a bear crossing major highways in the Wilmington area, news that created a buzz in a state where bears are almost never seen — at least until the last few years.

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It appeared one resident captured the bear up close on video and shared it to Twitter. (Warning, the tweet contains profanity.)

NAAAAAAA B ITS IN MY BACKYARD (s/o @Jimmy_Tries ) YOOOOO pic.twitter.com/5Q4U2AKXvV — d a n u (@DanuGladobili) December 5, 2019

St. Anthony of Padua Grade School canceled outside recess because of the bear.

The pursuit

Amid the excitement after the bear was first spotted, multiple passersby and Trolley Square Brew Haha customers walked outside to try to get a peek, craning their necks around police cars.

Next to an alley that the bear went down, employees of an accounting firm watched as it bumbled along the building's backyard, employee Holly Lea said.

It poked its head in windows and sat at the building picnic table. They could even hear it climbing around on the roof, she said.

“The funniest thing is seeing these poor Wilmington cops chase this bear,” Lea said. “Thirty-five cops on foot go running down the street. Two minutes later, they all run back across to the Acme parking lot. The bear must have changed course.”

Wilmington resident Jessica Hitchens and her 7-year-old daughter, Eevie, tried to catch a glimpse of the bear.

“It’s weird and scary with kids and cats around. So long as nobody gets hurt or shoots it,” Hitchens said.

Some people congregated next to a Subaru dealership on North Scott Street. The scene was near an auto repair shop called "Bear Alignment Center."

"Are we allowed to go home?" one resident shouted to police over the yellow tape.

Drivers in the area were confused by the scene. Multiple people driving by rolled down their windows asking what was going on, their mouths dropping open when they heard there was a bear nearby.

Thomas Skinner, who lives in the neighborhood, said he saw the bear in a parking lot on 14th Street, across the street from Acme. The bear then ran down a narrow alley behind homes.

Skinner’s brother-in-law saw the bear first, he said, and called police.

Police said the bear was spotted running down 13th Street earlier that morning.

“I grabbed my camera and ran out,” Steve Wannberg said, juggling a camera and coffee. Waiting to hear if the bear was caught, people crowded around his camera to see the photos he'd snapped of the bear poking its head over a fence.

At one point, residents ran toward the alley where the bear had originally been sighted. The bear was coming back out.

“He’s right there! I saw him!” Alyssa Wright yelled out.

“He’s beautiful,” said Hitchins.

“Anybody got any honey?” another person joked.

With all the commotion, the bear ran back into the alley.

Bear economics

Wilmington merchants took advantage of the bear mania.

Frank Pagliaro, owner of Frank’s Wine on Union Street, posted photos on his store’s Facebook page that feature bottles of wine with bears on the label.

“Here’s a lineup to enjoy while bear hunting in North Wilmo,” he wrote above the photo.

Restaurateur Xavier Teixido, who owns Kid Shelleen’s, which is a block away from Wilmington’s Brew HaHa, joked on his Facebook page that perhaps the bear-on-the-loose was looking for a job at the coffeehouse.

“Bearista?” he wrote.

Wilmington comedian Guy Schiavi promoted his weekly comedy showcase and open mic on Facebook. "We got him! Come to The Jackson Inn tonight for stand-up comedy and bear meat cheesesteaks," he wrote, followed by emoticons of a bear head and steaks.

Over at Añejo Mexican Grill & Tequila Bar, located a block from where the bear wandered earlier in the day, a chalkboard sign out front touted the night's special of jumbo "bear-y" margaritas with your choice of strawberry, wildberry or black raspberry.

On one side of the sign, an arrow pointing toward the bar's entrance with words "Tacos and Tequila." Another arrow pointing down the road was accompanied by the word "Maybe" crossed out followed by, "Definitely Bears."

"Your choice," the sign taunted at the bottom.

On the other side, a question is posed to passersby: "Does Añejo have the best margaritas in town? Does a bear sh*! in Trolley?"

More than one news helicopter hovered over the area. Police said they were worried the helicopters could frighten the bear.

Bears have been in Wilmington before, albeit not in such a footloose fashion. Blocks away from the bear sighting in Trolley Square is the Brandywine Zoo, which once housed bears named Gertie and Old Yellowstone.

It also was home to an 18-year-old bear named Igloo, who was believed to be the oldest living bear in captivity before its 1973 death.

The zoo had bears as far back as the 1920s, but it hasn’t housed a bear in years.

One of the Brandywine Zoo’s last bear residents was Rasputin, a black bear that was popular with visitors in the late 1980s.

The former bear pit still stands in the Main Zoo, next to the Administration Building.

THE ORIGINAL DELABEARS: Fun facts about Rasputin, Gertie and Old Yellowstone in Wilmington

Another bear — or maybe the same one, exploring for a future home — made headlines in Delaware several years ago when it wandered through the area, earning the nickname of Delabear. There was another unconfirmed sighting a year later.

WILD DELAWARE: Take a look back at these wild animals in Delaware