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Sam Penrod reporting A wild bear found its way into the middle of a Utah County city last night.
The bear was spotted in Springville and it took several hours before it was captured.
You can imagine the surprise for neighbors who saw a bear running around the middle of Springville last night about seven o clock.
The bear caused a lot of excitement in Springville last night. Wildlife biologists say it is a male bear, about three years old. The bear apparently wandered into Springville, probably during the night, had hid during the day and was starting to move around when residents spotted it. The bear saw some people and climbed into a tree, not far from Art City Elementary school in Springville. And it didn't take long for three or four hundred people to show up to see the bear in the tree!
"Matt Child: "IT WAS ONLY ABOUT 15 FEET UP THE TREE WHEN WE FIRST ARRIVED, THEN HE ENDED UP ABOUT 60 FEET UP THE TREE, FISH AND GAME PATIENT, THEY WERE ABLE TO DART HIM AND ABLE TO PULL HIM OUT OF THE TREE"
"Steve Gray, Division of Wildlife Resources: THIS LOOKS LIKE A YOUNG ONE COULD BE PART OF THE REASON"
The bear was sedated by a dart gun and taken out of the tree and held overnight. Wildlife officers will mark the bear in case it shows up somewhere else that it is not suppose to be. Right now the bear is on its way to be released in the mountains in Spanish Fork Canyon.
And coming up today on Eyewitness News at Five, we'll show you the bear's release back into the wild.
