Teenagers' close encounter with wandering bear caught on camera

Aug. 23 (UPI) -- A pair of Minnesota teenagers doing gardening at a friend's house had a close encounter with a wandering black bear, and the incident was caught on camera.

Hailey Nelson, 17, and Dori Arndt, 15, were working in the front garden at the Centerville home of friend Hailey Nyberg, 17, when Nelson spotted what she initially thought to be Nyberg's dog in the corner of her vision.

"We wanted money, so we decided to go pull some weeds and we're just pulling some weeds, just talking, listening to some music, turn our heads and it's just a black lab," Nelson told WCCO-TV.

Nelson said a second look led to the surprise realization that the animal wasn't a black lab. It was a black bear.

A security camera placed in one of the home's windows recorded as the girls fled toward the house -- and found the door was locked.

"So I'm pounding on the door saying, 'Let us in!' Screaming our heads off, just wanting to get inside! Then [Hailey Nyberg] pokes her head around the corner," Nelson recalled.

Brian Nyberg, Hailey's dad, opened the door and ushered Nelson and Arndt inside before going to get his daughter.

"I heard them screaming and my dad came outside and is just like, 'Why are you still out here? A bear just walked past our ... front yard!' I'm just like, 'What?'" Hailey Nyberg said. "And then he's just like, 'Get inside!'"

The bear wandered through the neighborhood, entering some back yards, before leaving the area, the Nybergs said.

A California teenager recently had an even closer bear encounter caught on camera at her family's home in Bradbury. A security camera was recording when Hailey Morinico, 17, pushed a bear standing on top of a fence to protect her family's dogs from the predator.