Bear spotted roaming near Target off Highway 101 in Rogers
ROGERS, Minn. -- Imagine it's a Friday night and you're going to the gas station or the car wash, and then all of a sudden, a black bear runs past you. Well in Rogers, they didn't have to imagine it -- it happened.
Just after 6 p.m. Friday, a bear was spotted roaming around a busy intersection in Rogers.
"All of a sudden I looked outside and it came running across the road from Denny's across the street," said Karly Sundeen.
The bear surprised the workers at the Mister Car Wash.
"It came around the corner of our building, and then kinda peeked into the back of our tunnel, and kinda peeked at me. And then I started freaking out 'cause I thought it was gonna come running into our tunnel," said Sundeen.
Video shows the bear then start to make its way up toward the highway -- that's when people nearby then actually tried to get its attention.
"We were worried it was gonna get hit and we were like, 'Do we call the cops or anything?'" said Sundeen.
A map from the Minnesota DNR shows reported bear sightings from across the state -- a majority of the reports have come in the past month with DNR saying the black bear range has expanded southward and westward.
The DNR recommends if you see a black bear, make noise to scare it off and report the sighting.
"I think we're definitely on their turf and they're used to people," said Sarah Morris of St. Louis Park. "And they probably want to get in garbage, and life's easier when there's food and garbage around."
The DNR says black bears are normally shy and scared of people and attacks by black bears are extremely rare.
Witnesses who saw the bear say it did eventually run off. WCCO is working to find out from DNR if they made contact with it.
