North Naples woman records bear roaming her neighborhood

A bear was caught taking a stroll in the Milano community of North Naples Sunday morning.

Resident Vanessa Walker said, “We were just pulling in from church from First Naples, and all of a sudden, I just look and this huge bear is coming out from between two houses. It was humongous. I immediately knew it was a bear, and it was not stopping.”

That’s when she says she stopped the car and took out her phone and started recording the bear.

“It just started across the car. And just we started walking along right next to like, right in front passing our neighbor’s like people’s doors. It was the craziest thing ever,” Walker said.

Walker said this isn’t the first time has seen a bear and she worries for her kid’s safety.

“We used to be very relaxed, you know, just hanging out with the neighbors, all the kids play in the cul-de-sac. And if you know, I am scared to just let them play. You never know where it’s going to come out from,” Walker said.

This is just one of four bear sightings in the Naples area in the last month.

You might recall a bear running across the Mercato shops on May 25.

Four days later a man encountered a bear in the pelican marsh neighborhood.

And the most recent ring doorbell footage showed a bear approaching a door.

But for Walker, she said she knows what she signed up for when she moved here.

“We do live right behind a preserve, that’s its home. And I just, you know, I hope that we can figure something out so that we can keep the kids safe and the bare seats,” Walker said.

Walker said she reached out to the FWC.

She said they told her that those bears tend to not be aggressive and confrontational and that unless they are being aggressive or messing with garbage cans they won’t do anything.