Black Bear spotted in Saint Louis Park MN

Judy Houseman’s surveillance camera captured this black bear walking through her St. Louis Park yard Sunday evening.

Judy Houseman could not believe she saw a black bear on her surveillance camera walking through her yard Sunday evening.

The St. Louis Park resident received a notification on her phone that her security camera had picked up movement at around 10:09 p.m. By the time she got to a window, the estimated 300-pound bear had disappeared."I showed it to my husband, and neither one of us could believe what we were seeing," she said. "It basically started to make one path through the yard, then it turned around and went back a ways and turned around again and continued on." The couple reported the bear to local police and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Houseman said she had never seen a bear even at her cabin up north, not to mention at her Cedar Manor neighborhood. "I've never seen a bear in real life," she said. "To see one walking through St. Louis Park is crazy." Another Cedar Manor neighbor, who saw Houseman's post on the social media site NextDoor, noted that he'd seen the bear too. "Must be the same little guy we saw around 10pm off Hannan Lake!" he wrote, adding that he also reported it to the DNR. "Not a little guy," Houseman responded. "He was huge!"

Correction: A previous version misidentified the type of bear.

Alex Chhith is a general assignment reporter for the Star Tribune.

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