News

Bear visits downtown

A bear visited SunTrust bank on Monday. [PHOTO BY AMY JACKSON]

By Bill Moss, Published: May 23, 2017

Maybe the bear just wanted to see the newest edition of the Main Street bears.

A bear, the real kind, wandered into downtown Hendersonville on Monday afternoon, climbed a hardwood tree beside SunTrust bank and perched on a high branch for several hours before climbing down and strolling off along the railroad tracks.
“It looked like she had fallen asleep after a while,” said SunTrust banker Patrick Hunt. “She was up there and her arm was just kind of hanging down.”
As bank employees, shop owners and other spectators gathered around the tree, the bear did what bears usually do when they wander into civilization and become surrounded by people: nothing. Bears aren’t usually a threat to people, wildlife officials say. Someone called the police.
“They made sure everybody was safe and that the bear wasn’t causing any harm,” Hunt said.
Capt. Bruce Simonds said a bear roaming into the downtown area is a fairly regular occurrence. The most watched such episode recently happened in October 2013 when a mother bear and two cubs climbed a 75-foot persimmon tree on the campus of Hendersonville High School, causing a school lockdown and a full day of bear watching.
“At the time it came up from South Main and did go into a tree," he said of Monday's bear visit. "We told people to leave it alone. Every spring one or two come into town. We tell them to leave them alone."