‘The Bear Could Have Eaten Me Up,’ Carolina Man Says After Bear Attack In His Driveway
OutdoorHub Reporters 11.12.18
A Carolina man says he’s lucky to be alive after being attacked by a bear while standing in the driveway of his North Carolina home, and he has his wife to thank for helping him walk away.
It all went down in the driveway of Sonny Pumphrey’s Waynesville home. Pumphrey was blowing leaves around 4 p.m. when he was suddenly surprised by not one, not two, but THREE bears standing within just a few feet of him, Fox Carolina reported.
“I was standing in the middle of my driveway and all of a sudden I turned around they were three bears right beside me,” Pumphrey wrote a Facebook post.
Two of the bears (likely cubs) turned and ran away from Pumphrey, while the third – which he believed was the mother – had already decided he was a problem and charged.
“Only thing I could do was to punch her right in the nose,” Pumphrey wrote of his attempts to fend off the attack. “Then she tried to bite me, put her head down and I started beating on top of her head. She then bit me on the side or butt, she (knocked) me to the ground.
His wife, Betty, watched the entire attack from inside, according to Fox Carolina.
Responding to one of the comments on his Facebook post, Sonny agreed with his wife.
“I am lucky, the bear could have eaten me up.”
Betty also pointed out that wildlife officers were setting up traps for the bear, who she said if caught, will be “put down.”
The attack took place roughly 30 miles from Asheville, where bear sightings have become a more common occurrence and other bear attacks have occurred.
