A bear took a morning stroll through Westville Wednesday morning, offering some off-screen pandemic entertainment for the neighborhood-bound.
Mira Lebowitz’s family gathered at a window at Central and Edgewood to watch the visitor.
“It was walking across the yard and walked on neighbor’s back steps,: Lebowitz said. “Then he just left” down Edgewood.
“We were excited,” she said. And they took photos, including this one.
Chris Volpe, a professional photographer, caught the bear on the deck in Edgewood Park near the corner of Yale. That’s the photo at the top of this story.
Social media was abuzz was for hours with bear sightings. Spottings were reported on Alston Avenue and, as late as 8 to 8:30, on Marvel Road.
“I was out running with my young daughter and a police officer stopped me on Chapel near Central to warn me!” one neighbor wrote on the NextDoor site.
“I hope it survives!” wrote another.
Police contacted the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and is working with the agency, said Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson.
In the meantime, he asked neighbors “to leave it alone and call in the location. We hope it goes safely back in the woods.”
Top Westville cop Lt. Elliot Rosa said the bear “was last seen going into the woods” at Roger Road and Forest Road.
“Bear sightings are common in Connecticut and with this sighting, there was no threat to the public,” police spokesman Capt. Anthony Duff noted in a release.