A Montana couple got an unwelcome visitor when they found a black bear in their living room and took matters into their own hands, shooting and killing the intruder.
Seeley Oblander and her fiancé, Thomas Bolkcom, were awakened at 3 a.m. to one of their two dogs, Maizey, barking ferociously. While the couple initially brushed the howling off, figuring a raccoon or a skunk had caught the dog's attention, Bolkcom eventually walked downstairs to see what was going on after the dog would not stop making a ruckus.
When Bolkcom, a commercial painter and elk hunter, went to investigate and tried to coax the Labrador-pit bull mix downstairs, he found a "black bear standing in the living room five feet away," Oblander said.
Wearing just a T-shirt and underwear, Bolkcom ran back downstairs, got a handgun and returned to the living room where he shot the bear. It ran into the couple's sunroom, so he shot the bear several more times.
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Oblander praised her soon-to-be husband for his quick reaction, saying that he did a "great job."
"I never thought there would be a bear in our house, so that was quite the wakeup call at three in the morning," she said. "I just stayed downstairs with the dogs, trying to help keep them out of the way and let Tom handle it. He did a great job."
With a dead bear in their house and a trail of blood around the house, the couple called their fathers and Bolkcom's brothers. They group carried the massive bruin into the couple's yard in rural Luther, Montana.
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A local warden told them the bear was about 10 years old and 250 to 300 pounds.
"At least nobody got hurt," Rocky Oblander said. "It's just too sad because it was a beautiful bear."
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesperson Chrissy Webb said that the warden determined the shooting was justified in self-defense. The large beast had snuck through the couple's screened window and made himself comfortable, the warden concluded.
"This is pretty abnormal behavior to have a bear entering a home," Webb said. "This large male black bear ended up dying because of improperly stored attractants in the community."
Bears become more active in the spring and summer, and in recent weeks they have been spotted in a Southern California pool, a backyard in Maine and in an Idaho man's garage.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
