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Glen Bearian Returns To Glendale And Gets Tranquilized

GLENDALE (CBS) — Glen Bearian, the meatball-loving visitor with his own Twitter page, returned to Glendale Sunday.

Bearian was spotted taking a snooze in a tree. He was tranquilized by officials before being returned to the wild.

The 400-pound bear, known by several nicknames including Glen Bearian III, the Future Mayor of Glendale and Meatball (because of his apparent fondness for frozen Costco meatballs), was spotted around 7 a.m. in a tree in the 3000 block of Foothill Boulevard, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Glendale police and California Department of Fish and Game personnel cordoned off the area and evacuated residences nearby.

Bearian was roused from his slumber when officials fired bean bag rounds at him then knocked out with four tranquilizer shots.

Louisa Hodge, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, spoke to a Fish and Game officials who said, "He was just resting and sizing up the situation."

Around 11:45 a.m. a group of Fish and Game officers began moving the bear, who was apparently unconscious, to a safe area of the Angeles National Forest, about 20 miles away from where he showed up today.

Hodge says Bearian's ear is tagged with an orange marker with the number 210.

Witness Gloria Perez was in her backyard when the bear (with only one tranquilizer dart in him at the time) started running towards her. Perez's small dog tried to take off, presumably to protect her, and she held on so tightly he scratched up her arm. "I was so scared," she says, grabbing her scratched-up arm, "I screamed. Look, I'm still shaking."

Bearian is apparently still sleeping it off as he hasn't updated his Twitter page -- with his nearly 25,000 followers -- as of 4:25 p.m. Sunday.

(©2012 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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