'How dare you': Video shows woman using 'teacher voice' to shoo bear off North Carolina porch deck
'It works every time," Debbie Tomlinson said
'It works every time," Debbie Tomlinson said
'It works every time," Debbie Tomlinson said
A South Carolina woman was not having any of it when a bear climbed onto the porch of her vacation house and tried to steal her bird feeders.
Debbie Tomlinson, a former teacher, and her husband were at their condominium in Sapphire, North Carolina, last week when she said her husband called to her about a bear being on the porch.
After grabbing her phone to get a video, she said she saw a "nursing mama bear whose young cub was foraging in the foliage below."
"I'm a bird-watcher, so I have feeders out, but I always bring them in at night because of the bears," Tomlinson said. But on this particular evening, she had not yet brought in the feeders.
The video shows the bear, which had climbed up a tall support post of the porch deck, walking across the railing toward the bird feeders.
Tomlinson knocked firmly on the glass door she was behind, but the bear was on a mission.
"That was not OK," Tomlinson said.
After a couple more knocks, Tomlinson pulled out her "teacher voice," she said.
"I opened the door and coaxed her down," she said, using a firm and commanding voice.
"Well, of course (I used that voice,) she said. "It works every time. I wasn't afraid. I just didn't want to lose my feeders. It was very exciting."
Tomlinson said bears are quite active in the North Carolina mountains this time of year.
"Last year, we saw a mama and three cubs ambling across the yard beside the condos.," she said. "We keep our car doors locked as well. Bears know how to open them," she said.
Tomlinson posted the video to her Facebook page and called it a "once in a lifetime experience."