In Long Barn, Calif., wildlife encounters aren’t unusual, but what occurred on Monday night definitely was. A young man’s regular evening training run turned into a life-threatening bear chase, and a nearby family was forced to step in. Heather Silfies, a local resident, witnessed the terrifying attack unfold, as reported by WYMT in eastern Kentucky.
Out on a regular run, the man encountered a black bear cub, triggering an angry pursuit by the mother bear. “I see this young man running down the road, and a bear literally chasing and biting at him,” Silfies recalled. The runner, desperate and injured, attempted to hide behind a tree, but the bear found him, leaving him with severe scratches, bite marks and torn clothes—he even lost a shoe.
The runner climbed on the roof of Silfies’s parked Escalade, with the bear aggressively attempting to reach him. “She’s literally jumping up at him, wanting to get on the roof, just wanting to attack him,” Silfies said.
Silfies and her family sprang into action, managing to scare the bear away and providing crucial aid to the injured runner until paramedics arrived. “He had a really nasty wound to the leg, and he had gashes on his chest and on his back,” Silfies said. “We feel blessed we were there to be able to help this kid in need, because it was one of these situations [where] it could have been life or death.”
The runner came back to thank the family the following day, and while the sheriff’s office came out to investigate, the bear was gone by the time they arrived; the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has taken over the investigation.
