Medical experts are divided on the existence of “screen addiction,” but whatever caused a napping Southern California teen to keep her laptop within arms reach may have saved her life. A 19-year-old resident of Sierra Madre, Calif. was napping in a chair at her backyard Monday evening when a black bear suddenly attacked her, scratching at her arms and legs and biting her, USA Today reports. According to a California Fish and Wildlife captain, the unidentified teen grabbed her laptop and smacked the bear with it. “She managed to break free of the bear enough to run back inside,” the CFAW captain, Patrick Foy, tells the outlet, which verified that the teen sustained minor injuries to her arms and legs, none of which are life-threatening.
Located about 20 miles northeast of Los Angeles, Sierra Madre is in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley, where black bear sightings are common but unprovoked attacks are not. Foy says Monday’s attack was “100 percent unprovoked” and the teen was right to fight back. “The recommendation to play dead is in the incident of grizzly bears,” he explains.
In a bit of “well, I wish you hadn’t included that” news, USA Today reports that a bear and her cub were captured in the area Tuesday night by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, but neither of their DNA matched up with swabs taken of the teen’s bite mark. The plan had been to tranquilize the two bears and take them to Angeles National Forest, but the cub inadvertently died due to complications from the tranquilizer; the mother bear was transported safely.
As a palate cleanser, might we suggest our story about the goats who recently invaded a California suburb? Or how about the herd of bison in Montana that just wanted to be on TV and ended up sending a local news reporter on the run?
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