Bear wanders into Mosby Court
Jeremy M. Lazarus | 7/3/2015, 10:57 a.m.
A black bear in Richmond?
Yes, it seems unbelievable.
The unusual visitor, though, is back in the wild.
Early Tuesday morning, agents with the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries captured the bear in the Mosby Court public housing community in the East End after shooting it with a tranquilizing dart.
Unharmed, the bear was caged then driven to the Great Dismal Swamp near Suffolk and released. The nearly 175-pound animal was at least 2 years old, officials said, and likely was surviving on grubs, garbage or dog food left outdoors.
No one knows how the young bear wandered into the city.
The search for the bear began after police received a report around 11 p.m. Monday from a person who saw the bear roaming in the 1800 block of Rogers Street, just east of Mechanicsville Turnpike in Church Hill.
The bear later was seen around midnight a few blocks west at Coalter and Redd streets in Mosby Court, police reported. Excited residents followed the bear as it searched for food and took video with their cameras while keeping an eye on it.
According to police, two game wardens tranquilized the bear around 2 a.m. near the public housing rental office. After the bear collapsed, the game wardens were able to pick it up and put in a truck.
