Bear drops by for checkup
Source: KRQE News 13
 Cell-phone video caught bear in lobby. |
As one wildlife officer observed, if you're going to be darted with tranquilizer, you might as well get it done in a hospital.
And the 125-pound black bear had already gotten the attention of some residents and the Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety as the 911 calls came in:
Operator: Regional 9-1-1. What's your emergency?
Caller: There's a bear in my back yard.
The bear was running around the neighborhood all morning long, but DPS and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish officers didn't catch up with him until he arrived at the Presbyterian Medical Group building at Southern and 38th Street.
And, well, let himself right in.
“The automatic doors opened,” DPS Officer John Francis said. “He got caught in between the automatic doors.
“Once the interior doors opened, the bear made his way inside.”
Employees at the health center said the bear did knock before entering.
“He was right in front of the glass doors there, banging on them, trying to get them open,” nurse Sean DeLoach said.
Employees at first they tried to keep the bear from getting through the doors but then thought better of it.
“When the first set opened, there was a bunch of us in the lobby area,” DeLoach said. “We all decided that was a good time to leave.”
Eight employees and two patients quickly vacated the lobby.
DPS officers cornered the bear and held him until game officers arrived to tranquilize and capture it.
DeLoach said he didn't mind the surprise visit adding the bear didn't threaten anyone and was very courteous.
“Yes, he was very neat and tidy," DeLoach said. "We were trying to get him to schedule some more patients for us, but…"
Game officers believe the bear made his way into Rio Rancho from the Jemez or Manzano mountains after he was displaced by his mother or a more dominant bear.
Once the bear slept off the tranquilizer, he was released back into the Manzano Mountains.
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