66 year old former Marine living in Mariposa gets mauled by a black bear

Larry Yepez, former Marine, lives in the Mariposa area, a small Gold Rush town in the foothills of the Sierra.   Great place to retire to when you are 66, but you are in bear and lion country, even if you don't see them all the time.  Larry tells what happened to him one night:

"As Yepez tells his story, it was still dark when he stepped onto his porch about 4 a.m. on Aug. 13. He said he was headed to the bathroom , which is disconnected from his house ( in other words, the outhouse ). He had seen bears on his property at a distance, he said, but when his outdoor motion detector lights switched on, he was staring at one less than 10 feet away. Authorities believe it was scavenging for food in Yepez’s trash and got spooked."

Mistake number one: trash on the porch.   That's gonna lure them in eventually for sure.

"Then, Yepez said, the bear charged at him."

"Yepez grabbed a large, plastic flower pot from his porch and swung it, hitting the bear in the head. Dirt flew. The pot shattered. Yepez was left holding only the pot’s rims. “With pieces I had left in my hand I hit him again,” he said."

"Then the bear pounced on him and knocked him down, he said."

“I hit him on the head with my right hand,” he said. “Then I tried to hit him with my left and he locked his jaws on it. I hit him again with my right and he hit me back. At that moment, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to punch my way out.

“I was in disbelief. I didn’t know what was going on, but when he had my hand in his mouth and I could see his eyes just inches away from mine, I thought, ‘This bear is trying to kill you. You’ve got to fight.’

“I got my feet underneath the bear and pushed as hard as I could. He stumbled back, looked at me and then he started to come at me again.”

That’s when, Yepez said, his 10-pound Yorkshire terrier, Benji, ran around the bear and approached him from behind, barking and nipping at his fur.

“The bear turned around and swatted at the dog,” he said, “and that gave us just enough time to get back in and slam the door.”

Sounds like the bear was winning the fist/paw fight until Yepez' faithful dog got into the match.  Lesson: always have a dog with you in bear country, if not also a 454 Casull revolver mounted on your hip.

Black bears are generally not a big threat, but they are amazingly strong and you can't win a physical fight with one.  You can't even out run one, they are very fast in spite of their round appearance.  Further, a black bear will climb a tree after you if it wants to.  Larry got away from this encounter with a great story and some new scars to impress the grandkids, but he's actually quite lucky his dog saved him when he did.

I'll bet this former Marine stores his trash a bit better from now on, and packs some heat when using the outhouse at night.