Now THAT'S a babysitter!

Coeur d'Alene Press: Babysitter kills black bear
Hagadone News Network

PORTHILL, ID - Quick thinking by their aunt kept three children from possible harm early last week when a black bear reportedly weighing 422 pounds came out of the woods near Porthill and into a backyard where the children were playing.

The woman was babysitting her sister's 2-year-old twin boys, Cleo and Charles, and 3-year-old daughter, Brooklyn, in the backyard when she heard Brooklyn screaming, "Bear, bear!" said Brooklyn's mother, Becky Henslee.

Henslee said when her sister looked up, she saw the bear running down a path out of the woods and into the backyard. She snatched up the three children and sprinted for the house.

The four made it to the house, which had a sliding glass door. Henslee said her sister, who is still too shaken up by the incident to talk about it and did not want to be identified, got the kids inside.

When she turned to close the door, the bear was right there. It began pawing at the door and damaged the screen door and the window frame, said Henslee.

Their aunt ushered the children into a back bedroom and then grabbed a rifle, which had only been fired twice before.

The woman went back to the door and watched as the bear stood up and began pounding on the glass.Brooklyn remembers hearing the thump-thump as the bear hit the door, Henslee said.

Henslee said her sister, who has a bear tag, loaded her 7mm rifle and waited. The bear was distracted for a moment by something at its feet and it looked down. Using that as her chance, the babysitter slid the door open a foot and shot twice from the hip at the bear just three feet away.

The bear dropped dead on the step.

Henslee shudders when she thinks about what might have happened if her daughter hadn't sounded the alarm and if her sister hadn't acted so quickly.

The bear apparently had been rooting around the property for a little while. Henslee found the hot-wire around her horse pen broken.

An encounter as serious as this one is rare in Idaho, said Greg Johnson, a conservation officer with Idaho Fish and Game."We've not had a single incident in Idaho of a black bear attacking a person," he said.

This has been a bad year for bear encounters, however, as the bears search for food. A bad berry crop this year has forced the bears to scrounge more for food, Johnson said.

Apparently, there was a barbecue grill on the home's porch, and that is likely why the bear came up to the home, Johnson said.

Bears will take advantage of easy food sources, he added."If you have a bear, you probably have food out," he said.