MICHIGAN CITY | It appears the black bear is wearing out its welcome in Michigan City.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources may start to take a more aggressive approach to try to force the bear out of the area.
The decision was made Wednesday night, 24 hours after the bear was chased by police across several backyards and into a wooded area on Tulip Tree Drive, just east of the municipal golf course.
Theresa Krueger said the bear spent five to ten minutes trying to get into her house just prior to the chase.
She returned home from work and heard some noises.
When she opened her sliding glass door to investigate, Krueger said the bear was on her back patio within arms reach of her.
She immediately closed the door and from the other side of house watched the bear running his paws over the glass and tapping on the glass.
"He would not go away from that door. He wanted in here," said Krueger.
There were four other sightings of the bear within a 90-minute period that night in the same neighborhood and police were out until about 3 a.m. looking for and yelling at the animal.
Budd Veverka, a farmland game research biologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources out of Bloomington, said hazing of the bear will occur.
That means after every sighting, law enforcement will go out and yell at the bear and possibly do other things like fire rubber bullets and buckshot and set out explosive devices that emit very bright rays of light.
Another option is to get close enough to pepper spray the bear, said Veverka.
The hazing will be done by officers approaching from the south in hopes of pushing the bear north until he keeps going into his home state of Michigan, said Tyler Brock, a conservation officer from the DNR office in Michigan City.
"What we'd like to do is mainly discourage the bear from the area," said Brock.
Until now, DNR has been strictly monitoring the bear's activity hoping by instinct it would return to Michigan on its own.
The first reported siting was in early May of the bear believed to be a young male swimming across a lake in the Muskegon area.
The bear has been in the Michigan City area for a month staying primarily within the boundaries of Ind. 212, U.S 20 and Interstate 94.
DNR officials stiill believe there is little risk of the bear attacking, but since he keeps returning to several of the homes in search of food and seems to be getting more comfortable around humans, there's heighted concern.
The concern will become greater the longer he stays.
Veverka said bears typically become more restless when fall approaches because of their need to eat more and do other things like find shelter to prepare for hibernating during the winter.
The DNR has not decided to try and capture the bear yet, but an attempt will be made if the level of concern reaches the next level.
"If he continues to stay and he keeps hitting houses houses over and over we'll go out and try to capture it," said Veverka.
Bruce Manner, who on several occasions has had bird feeders and other property knocked over by the bear, said he no longer feels safe to walk down to Trail Creek near his property.
It was still daylight on Tuesday when Manner said he was checking his bird feeders and saw the bear "laying under the platform feeder munching on the seeds from the pole he bent to the ground."
With several young children, Carma Ledesma also of Tulip Tree Drive is becoming more worried especially close to sunset when the bear seems to be more active.
"I don't really want them out there when it starts to get dark. I hope they just get him and set him free. Go let him do his little bear business somewhere else . I don't want him to get hurt," said Ledesma.
There were sightings or evidence of the bear on nine consecutive days prior to the most recent spottings, including early Friday when the bear was nearly hit by a pick up truck running across Indiana 212.
Sam Troxell, 38, of Michigan City said he slammed on his brakes and stopped just 10 feet from the bear, which quickly disappeared.
He was headnig to work in Michigan at the time of the encounter.
"It startled me a little bit. I can't believe it was a bear," said Troxell.