Not turning back after spotting a mother bear and her cub on a trail ahead of you.
Working alone in remote, deep bear country in Alaska or Canada.
Approaching a bear in order to feed it.
Readers of the “Predator Watch” column know that those are all actions that might put you at risk of becoming a victim of a bear attack. Being in the safety of your own home does not make the list, which is why the attack on a California teenager this week was so surprising.
The last thing Kevin Wood, 19, in Crestline, San Bernardino, probably felt would happen to him early Monday morning while in his room is that a bear would maul him through his window screen door, but that’s what his mother believes occurred based on the bent mesh window frame of his room’s window and the bear she later saw hanging around near their home. While Kevin, who is autistic, didn’t verbally relate the events, his mother did describe what she saw after she heard a disturbance at 5:45 a.m. and her son came out of his room: “I see him and his face is just covered with blood. I could see his lip was entirely split.” Kevin, who also had scratches on his stomach, required stitches.
Kevin’s mother described the animal as a large black bear, which she says she drove off the property by loudly banging on a pot. The attack wasn’t as surprising as it would have been in an urban area, since Crestline sits against the San Bernardino National Forest. However, according to a KTLA report on the incident, Crestline residents say they are spotting bears much more frequently — almost daily — and that they appear more aggressive, including one caught on a security camera knocking over a gate on a nearby property.
When researching other recent wild animal attacks on humans inside homes, I found that there have been a number of cases where bears have invited themselves inside uninvited.
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In 2025, an 87-year-old Nevada man encountered a bear in his garage that was searching for food. The bear scratched the man’s arm and followed him into the house, where it also scratched his 87-year-old wife. The couple suffered only minor injuries. Nevada Department of Wildlife Game Division Administrator Shawn Espinosa explained what was behind the incident, which occurred in November: “Bears are still experiencing hyperphagia, or a phase where they build up as many calories as possible before going into their dens for winter. To ensure bears make their ways to their dens, it is important that residents secure attractants.”
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While Cadman had woken up in the middle of the night to discover the black bear wandering around her kitchen, she said Doodle ultimately was the one who sprang into action and chased the predator out of the house, according to KTLA. Security footage shows Doodle barking and growling at the large bear as it curiously sniffed the domesticated animal. Doodle is then seen walking out of the room, with the bear following behind. "Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to find a bear going through your fridge! Just 10 feet from your bed!" Cadman wrote in a Facebook post.Indeed, it's almost impossible to imagine a bear raiding your fridge in the middle of the night. But even harder to imagine is coming face to face with one when you're taking a shower.
“My wife was taking a shower and it came out of the shower and it was standing there,” Sam Padilla, another Monrovia resident, told KTLA last year. He stoically explained that it was just part of the bargain of living along the foothills of the of the San Gabriel Mountains: “I understand there’s like 30,000 bears in California, so what are they going to do? Take three or four away? They’re just going to keep coming back. If you don’t like it, move out."
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Taking “crashing” one’s home uninvited to its most literal sense was the black bear that crashed through a Kentucky home’s ceiling last year, landing on the kitchen stove. The bear had climbed a ladder and squeezed through an opening in the attic before falling through the ceiling.
The Fox 17 newscaster asks: What would you do in this situation? Share your answers in the comments.
