July 6 (UPI) -- A New Jersey couple's security camera captured footage of the tense moment their dogs narrowly escaped a black bear by darting through the door.
Joseph Damiani of Annandale said he heard his dogs barking outside so he went to the back porch to investigate.
"I hear a bunch of 'woof, woof, woof,'" he told WCBS-TV. "The dogs shoot right past me and then I see the bear."
Damiani said the dogs made it inside, leaving him to watch from outside as the bear "tried to charge into the house."
Shirley Perlinsky, Damiani's girlfriend, tried to lock the door, but the bear's shoving left her struggling to hold the door closed.
"I just tried to lock the door, but I couldn't because the door got caught in the leash. So I was fighting, I was fighting the bear. The bear was pushing the door this way, I was pushing the door that way," Perlinsky said.
Perlinsky, who posted the security camera footage of the incident to Facebook, said she knew Damiani was still outside with the bear.
"That's my boyfriend, and I love him very much, but I couldn't let the bear inside my house," she said.
Damiani was able to run around the house to come in the front door.
The couple said wildlife officials told them the bear was likely lured to their yard by their birdfeeders. They said the feeders have now been emptied.
