A 300-pound black bear was captured Tuesday after residents found it lounging around a Spring Valley apartment complex.
The bear was spotted at the Blueberry Hill apartment complex and climbed a tree where it stayed for hours. Police came to secure the scene until the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) arrived. The DEC shot the bear with a tranquilizer gun and residents watched as it fell from the tree into a net. It was placed in a holding container until it can be relocated into a less populated area.
The bear will stay in New Paltz overnight at the DEC division headquarters. The department has not decided where it will take the bear from there. DEC officials say it is mating season for the bears and it apparently wandered into Spring Valley looking for a mate.