All of those “keep a handgun in the kitchen drawer” people are pumping their fists after seeing this story.
Earlier this month, a man in Montana named Thomas Bolkcom was forced to spring into action when a black bear came flying through his living room window. The incident occurred early in the morning around 3 a.m., shortly after the man and his fiancé, Seeley Oblander, were awoken out of their sleep by their pet dog barking excessively.
The 27-year-old man left their downstairs bedroom and walked up the stairs to the main level of the home where all the commotion was coming from. At first the couple thought that their dog might have just seen a skunk or other small animal outside the door, but Bolkcom knew that something was different about the way his pet was barking.
The man made it up the stairs and shockingly came face to face with a black bear in his living room. After taking a moment to realize the gravity of the situation, Bolkcom went sprinting back downstairs to retrieve his hand gun. As for his fiancé Seeley, she told the AP that she was busy doing other things:
“I never thought there would be a bear in our house, so that was quite the wakeup call at three in the morning. I just stayed downstairs with the dogs, trying to help keep them out of the way and let Tom handle it.”
Bolkcom grabbed his Glock 10mm and ran back up the stairs like a super hero. The 300 pound black bear was making itself at home in their living room, and the Montana man wasn’t sure what the best course of action was in the heat of the moment. When the beast started growling and appeared to be getting aggressive, Bolkcom felt like he was out of options and opened fire.
The black bear took six shots to bring down, but finally fell to the floor after a brief battle within the house. The Montana Fish and Wildlife Department was notified of the incident and came to remove the bear from the property, and also ruled that the killing of the bear was an act of self defense.
A spokesperson for the FWP spoke to KTQV news and said that garbage in the area not being secured properly was likely the cause of the bear break in:
“The bear became habituated and started associating homes and vehicles with getting food. That’s what motivated it to eventually break into this specific couple’s house, and then ended, of course, in the bear’s death.”
Funny enough, the soon-to-be-married couple was set to leave on their bachelor and bachelorette trips later that morning. Both Bolkcom and Oblander were needing to catch flights to Arizona, so they called family members to help with the clean up process and coordination with the Montana Fish and Wildlife Department.
The family members who were available helped the couple use a tarp to load the bear up on and carry out of the home. Bolkcom and Oblander had departed for their respective trips when the FWP game wardens arrived at the house to investigate the scene. They determined that the bear was around 10 years old at the time of its death, and also cleared the couple of any wrongdoing.
The Endangered Species Act protects bears from being killed in Montana, “which means any ‘taking’ of a bear must be authorized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service unless it involves serious threats to a person’s life,” according to the USFWS.
