Arizona Game & Fish Department employees captured and euthanized a bear seen in Anthem Monday morning.
The bear had been captured in the Prescott area about a week and a half ago before being tagged and released in a remote area.
Game & Fish officials estimate it traveled 40 miles to Anthem, where it was initially spotted Sunday night.
On Monday morning, it was spotted by Mia Kruk, who started recording video of it as she was in her vehicle.
“I was like ‘Oh my god! It is a bear!” said Kruk. She says she originally thought it might be a large dog, but as she got closer, she realized what it was.
The fact that the bear was still in the neighborhood in the morning was abnormal, according to officials.
Another resident, Jeff Dill, spotted the bear getting tranquilized by deputies after word got out in the neighborhood that there was a bear in the area.
“You could see that it looked like it had some darts in it, walked around the wall and it stopped and it fell once, and got up, and it fell down again and it was out for the count,” said Dill.
They tranquilized the bear and eventually euthanized it because it had gone back into an area of human development, making it a safety concern.
Just one week ago another bear was spotted in an east Mesa neighborhood.
“I just wonder if we are going to start seeing a trend with the bears in the neighborhoods looking for food, or people putting food for stray animals, is that going to be a trend, because you know a hungry animal will attack?” Asked Dill.
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