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Home Alone, 12-Year-Old Girl Encounters Bear In Her Kitchen

FOREST FALLS (CBS) — A 12-year-old girl was home alone in Forest Falls Wednesday afternoon and just like in the Hollywood movie, she found herself staring down an unwanted house guest.

In this case, however, it wasn't a group of bungling burglars but rather a bear!

Kara Jackson showed KCAL9's Jeff Nguyen how the bear became an interloper. "This window was open and then he clawed his way in."

She was about ten feet from the bear when it entered her kitchen, she says.

"When I saw him, I clapped as loud as I could and ran upstairs."

Apparently, she made enough noise to scare the bear off.

The bear roamed around the kitchen (he knocked over all the kitchen utensils) but decided to leave before completely making himself at home.

Safely upstairs, and hiding in her room, Jackson called her dad who was at work. Cole Jackson, in turn, called the Sheriff's Department. He told Nguyen he was worried about his daughter's safety, of course, "But all our kids know [what to do] when they encounter wild life up in the mountains."

Cole Jackson believe this is the same bear who has been seen around their neighborhood for the past three weeks. After leaving, the bear climbed a tree and stayed for two more hours before returning to the woods.

Might he return? Quite likely...this was the bear's third trip to the Jackson house in just the past month. A few weeks ago, the bear ripped through a screen and got his head and shoulders inside but Kara's dad says he was able to scare him off using his flashlight.

Cole Jackson doesn't think the bear is trying to trespass. He sees it the other way around. "This is their neighborhood and we're just visitors."

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