Black Bear Invades Maple Ave. Area of Metuchen

Residents on the north side of Metuchen got a surprise this morning. They found a black bear wandering around their very surburban neighborhood.

The bear, estimated to be a two-year-old, was ambling around the north side of town not far from the border with Iselin around 7 am.

As of noon, Metuchen police said they had found the bear, who had scampered up a tree in the backyard of a Maple Ave. resident.

"The calls started around 7, and they kept coming," said Corporal Dave Liantonio, who was handling what was quickly turning into a media event.

The borough police quickly put a call into the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection's (NJDEP) Division of Fish and Wildlife for help.

Only problem is, they aren't coming because the bear is too high up in the tree.

"They're not in a rush," said Liantonio. "If they shoot him with a dart that high up, he'd get hurt in the fall."

So now it's a waiting game. "When he's hungry, he'll come down," the Metuchen corporal said. "Of course, we can't tell how long ago he ate."

Meanwhile, the quiet neighborhood has been transformed into a circus - not from Metuchenites, who received a reverse 911 call early today to warn them of the bears, and to keep their pets and children inside. It was the members of the media, Liantonio said, who were crawling around Maple Ave, trying to get a picture of the bear.

There were even two helicopters from local news stations, trying to get a glimpse of the animal.

So now it's a waiting game: the media waiting for the bear to show himself for a photo op, the state bear tamers waiting for the bear to get lower so they can come and nail him with a tranquilizer dart.

But the Metuchen police, while they have the Maple Ave. bear situation well in hand, aren't sitting on their laurels.

They're busy looking for the second bear. Apparently some residents who called the first one in said they saw two bears and not just the one currently up the tree.

The current bear hostage is small, Liantonio said. "But I don't know what small is with a bear. He probably weighs a good 100 to 150 lbs. I guess it's relative."

Last November, the Woodbridge area had another encounter with a black bear that was twice the size of the Maple Ave. cub.

Clark police followed a 300 lb. black bear from their township through a residential in the Colonia section of Woodbridge. The bear was shot and killed after it charged an officer.

There have been bear sightings in all of the state's 21 counties. The NJDEP's website has a list of links on bears in the state, and what you can do to protect yourself.