[Doglips]

Bear Breaks Into University Building, Escapes Capture

POSTED: 12:02 p.m. EST November 5, 2003

BOONE, N.C. -- This wasn't an average breaking-and-entering report at Appalachian State University.


The police department at the North Carolina college got a call this week from students describing a scene outside their apartment window. They said the suspect was knocking in a door at the Holmes Convocation Center in Boone.

When officers arrived, they saw a brown bear had pushed the glass out of a ground-level door and was making its way down a hallway. Then it then turned and headed out.

The bear fled across campus and ran head-first into an office building, where it bloodied its nose on a window. Then it took off into nearby woods.

Officers searched for about an hour for the 150-to-200-pound animal but didn't find it.

No one else was injured in the incident.
Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.