ORO VALLEY, AZ — Can you imagine going inside a Fry’s grocery store at around six in the morning and being told by a fellow shopper that there’s a bear inside the store?
That was the reality for Charlie Alolkoy on Monday morning.
“I just didn’t believe it. I just thought this guy’s drunk,” he said about the man who told him.
While some were scared, he said others were curious, and one woman was even crying. While he encounters a lot of wildlife when he photographs them, a bear is not an animal he has ever encountered.
“I was very startled, and my first reaction was to just get out of the way,” Alolkoy said about his own reaction. “When I felt like I was at a safe distance from it, I was more about curiosity than fear.”
Alolkoy recounted that the bear looked like it was looking for a way out of the store, running around the different aisles. However, he said it eventually found its way out, and Fry’s employees evacuated the store, and the Oro Valley Police Department arrived at the grocery store.
“When they’re cornered, they’re more dangerous, and this seemed like that kind of situation, so I was a little more cautious than I normally am,” Alolkoy said.
Because it’s rained less this year, Arizona Game and Fish’s public affairs community liaison Mark Frieberg said bears come closer to our neighborhoods when looking for “bear necessities” like food because there are fewer resources in the mountains. Usually, Frieberg said it doesn’t happen often, but when it does, he said it happens during the summer and has recently been happening more.
Last Friday, Olena Kotsur said she was barely able to stay calm when she saw a bear in a neighborhood about three miles away from the Fry’s. She said she also saw it around 6 a.m. when she was going for a walk in the morning. While she normally sees wildlife like javelina, she said she had never seen a bear.
“I was frozen. I was freaking out because you don’t really expect to see a bear somewhere here,” Kotsur said. “When he saw me, he just stopped and he started staring at me. It was a really scary moment.”
This also comes after there was a bear sighting last Friday by another person.
Frieberg said they’re still looking for the bear from Fry’s. They said it could be put in a sanctuary or be put down if it was a threat to humans. If anyone finds it, Frieberg said they can call 623-236-7201.
“It was unbelievable. I will never forget this,” Kotsur said.
