Bear living in New Jersey Man's Basement: How did that happen? by Kate Johns

My husband sent me a story the other day of how a bear was hibernating in a New Jersey man's basement.

Here's a snippet of the story: The 550-pound bear that was found hiding out in a New Jersey basement had been living there for weeks.

Frank Annacone, 85, never imagined that a bear would move in with him.

“I could have ended up lunch for that big guy,” he said, still expressing disbelief.

Annacone learned about his roommate yesterday from Dave Cornine, a cable technician who had come over for a repair job in the basement.

“I heard the growl, I thought what is that noise,” Cornine said.

Cornine turned around and saw an enormous black bear waking up in the corner. He didn’t stick around to make friends with  the bear.

“I just freaked out, threw my tools, ran out of the basement,” he said.

When Animal Control officers attempted to trap the bear he took off, leading them on an hour-long chase.

After reading this story, I had many questions: how can anyone not notice a bear living in the basement? What kind of basement did this man have, that the bear could just walk in?

How could you not hear a bear making noise in your basement? All I can figure is this 85 year old man, was hard of hearing. He must have a basement that leads to the outdoors, or has a very large, loose door leading to the outside. Either that or Frank is this side of senile, and needs to live somewhere a tad bit safer, because if a bear can get into his house, just imagine who or what else can LIVE in his basement----rent free, without his knowledge.

My last question; does Frank ever go downstairs?