Denver Child Survives Encounter With Black Bear

A child eating kettle corn in a Denver Colorado backyard nearly became a snack himself when he was approached by a hungry black bear. The good news is this Denver child survived the encounter with a black bear.

The unidentified child was visiting Aspen with his parents, who’d bought the kettle corn for him at a farmers market earlier in the day, authorities say. Surveillance footage shows the boy sitting in a lawn chair near a fire pit as the bear – who can be seen sniffing the air – approaches the boy from behind. Rachel Schmela, the boy’s mother, noticed what was happening when the bear was just a foot away from her son’s head, she says. “I was, like, frozen for a couple of seconds; I didn’t know what to do,” she says.

“Luckily, [the boy’s father] Rob and his brother kind of jumped into action sooner than I did. They knew just to make some loud noise and that would scare the bear.” The family they’re staying with says while they’ve seen bears in the area at night, the incident marked the first time one has entered their yard during the day.

Accoring to KXAN, the incident was all caught on camera, showing the bear sniffing in the air while approaching the boy, who was sitting on a yard chair near a firepit. The bear came within about a foot of the boy’s head. Check out the video here.