A Chadds Ford mother ended a cellphone conversation with a friend very loudly and dramatically the night of Monday, May 17.
Rosa Crane said she had pulled into the parking lot of the Texas Roadhouse restaurant on Route 1 in Concord Township to pick up her 17-year-old son who works there part-time when a bear darted in front of her vehicle.
“I must have screamed her ears out,” Crane said, recalling the abrupt way in which she shrieked the reason for ending the call. She said the animal was so close that there was no risk of misidentification. “It was definitely a bear,” she said.
Crane had good reason to fear the encounter. She had picked up her son, Zelik Wooten, just the night before and marveled at how great he smelled when he got into the car. After spending several hours surrounded by filet mignons and ribeyes, he had exuded exactly the kind of steak-like scent likely to attract a ravenous beast.
The animal had just come from the spot where the teen, a junior at Garnet Valley High, had been standing the previous night. “That’s what made me freak out even more,” she said.
Crane said she breathed a sigh of relief when her son walked outside unscathed – and wondered what had his mother in such a frenzy. So Crane decided to explain the situation by tracking down the beast, steering the car in the direction the bear had headed.
She also called 911, and an empathetic dispatcher immediately connected her to a trooper from the state police barracks in Media. She said she heard someone say in the background: “There’s been another bear sighting.”
And within minutes, she found the bear again, this time roaming around the State Farm parking lot at Routes 1 and 202. By now, the drama had captivated her son, a member of the football team, and he was eager to share the experience by shooting video. He started to roll down the window, which caused his mother another bout of panic.
She said she convinced him that keeping the window wide open wasn’t such a great idea, and he proceeded to capture several minutes of bear footage from a smaller opening. He sent the clip to Channel 6, where it quickly caught a lot of attention.
“It’s been pretty crazy,” said Crane. “Of course, it’s not every day that you see a bear.”
Once the bear lumbered out of the parking lot, Crane said they caught their breath and headed home.
As for the bear, it had turned in the opposite direction “It started going toward West Chester,” Crane said.
For tips on what to do if you spot the bear, go to https://chaddsfordlive.com/2016/05/17/going-bear-foot-in-chadds-ford-area/.
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