Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 25, 1990                   TAG: 9006250076
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE COMMOTION IN SALEM WAS `BEAR-LY' NECESSARY

So did a lot of her neighbors on Walnut Lane and Texas Hollow Road in Salem - who spent three hours watching a bear wander around their neighborhood.

For Coffey, the commotion began about 11 a.m., when her dog, Mitzi, started barking.

"She's always barking at a cat . . . a squirrel . . . a raccoon," Coffey said, so she did think much about Mitzi's protests.

But when the dog wouldn't stop, Coffey decided to go investigate. "I'm getting her off her leash, and I look to see what she's barking at - have you ever had your legs turn to jelly? I couldn't get that dog in here fast enough."

The bear in Coffey's backyard, though, seemed distinctly unconcerned.

For the next three hours, the bruin ambled through the west end of Salem, eluding police, animal control officers and a growing number of curiosity-seekers.

"Up on Texas Hollow Road, people were getting out of their cars and looking," Coffey said.

Eventually, authorities caught up with the bear in a field next to Coffey's house. They tranquilized him, scooped him up with a front-end loader, plopped him in a van and shipped him back to the woods.

When it was all over, Salem police were barely impressed.

"Big black bears will be big black bears," said Lt. Glenn Robinson. "I've been here 23 years, and I think this is the third or fourth time a bear has come into the city. However, it's the first time I can remember where we tranquilized it and hauled it away."

He also noted that when bears do come into town, it's usually in the fall, not the summer.

But folks in West Salem weren't taking any chances.

"I was going to go out and get some sun today in the yard," Coffey said. "No way now."