Mother Bear, Cub Wander Around Arcadia Neighborhood

ARCADIA (CBSLA.com) — A mother bear and her cub wandered around an Arcadia neighborhood Saturday around noon.

The bears were first spotted at Highland Oaks Dr. and Woodland Avenue.

CBS2 and KCAL9 reporter Bobby Kaple went to Arcadia to talk to residents.

The bears caused a lot of excitement.

Bear sightings are not unusual in the area, but they rarely travel as far south.

Shelly Chu said they came through her fence. "My dog, he was running around in the whole backyard. He was sniffing around to see if there were other animals. So I know it must be the bear." Later she discovered her trash cans were overturned and all the trash was out. "Immediately I knew there must be a bear in the area."

Jim Pontello said, "I saw this large mass and thought...nah."

But "nah" was a bear and her cub. They were frolicking in people's backyards and looking through trash. They even stopped for a quick dip.

Police came equipped with bean bag rifles to make sure the animals didn't cause any trouble.

Carl Christensen said he had bears in his backyard recently:  "just a couple of days ago...sleeping there. Sure did."

Formerly, Chu was afraid to let her small dog out at night and now she says "I think I'll be careful in the daytime."