911 Calls Show Fear From Connecticut Joggers Fleeing Bear
— -- The terrifying moments when two Connecticut joggers were chased by the same bear were captured in 911 calls they made to authorities.
“A black bear…he's got me cornered here,” Clyde Grindal can be heard saying on the call, later yelling, “Go, go, go,” to scare the bear way.
Grindal was out for a run in a Granby, Connecticut, park Monday afternoon when the 120-pound black bear chased him down.
Grindal said he hid behind a tree but the bear still managed to claw at him.
“He got around the tree and just swiped me,” Grindal, whose only injury was a scrape across his chest, told ABC affiliate station WTNH-TV in New Haven.
Jessica Kraizer was jogging in the same area on the same day when she says the bear followed her, too.
“A bear just chased me for over two miles in the woods,” Kraizer, a college student, told the 911 operator. “I’m fine.”
Kraizer said she used a bench to separate herself from the bear.
“The bear was so close to me so I got up and stood on top of the bench,” she told ABC News. “I made myself big and the bear kept coming and jumped on the other side of the bench.”
Officials captured the bear Monday evening and euthanized the animal, according to WTNH.
Wildlife biologists from Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) determined the bear was a male and 16 to 17 months old. The bear is now being tested for rabies or other health issues that could help explain its aggressive behavior, WTNH reported.
