Black bear spotted near Pennsylvania mall

WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa., Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A bear spotted outside a mall before it opened Wednesday morning was relocated by Pennsylvania wildlife officials.

A truck driver spotted the 185-pound, 2-year-old bear in a 15-foot tall tree outside of Westmoreland County Mall, WPXI reported.

"He basically came in contact with the bear, not physically, but saw the bear, and the bear was likely frightened and that's why the bear went in the tree," Dawn Gnieski of mall business development said.

Matthew Lucas of the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Southwest Region Office told Trib Live game officials sedated the bear with tranquilizer darts while it was in the tree before placing straps on the bear to lower it down.

"We lowered it down with a strap. It didn't go as smooth as possible, but we lowered it down without any injury," he said.

The process took about an hour and a half, as wildlife officials managed to safely release the bear into state game lands.

"Fortunately, we were called before the mall opened and were able to move it before there was a lot of pedestrian traffic -- and before it had the chance to possibly run out on to Route 30 during rush hour," Lucas said.