An elementary principal in West Virginia was unlocking a dumpster outside the school when the lid suddenly popped open like a Jack in the Box and out came a black bear.
The incident occurred last week at Zela Elementary School in Summersville where James Marsh is principal.
“You throw stuff in a dumpster,” Marsh told WSAZ. “Things go in it, but you just don’t expect anything that big to come out of it.”
A security camera captured video of the close encounter, and the Nicholas County Board of Education posted the footage on its Facebook page.
The bear made a quick exit to the right as the stunned principal sprinted off in the opposite direction. He is later seen speaking with a woman who emerged from a side door just as the encounter was unfolding.
Marsh is seen trying to catch his breath.
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“I have not been that close to [a bear], and I doubt that many people have,” Marsh told WSAZ. “I didn’t even open the lid. It just popped out of there like a Jack in the Box. It let out a pretty loud growl or roar actually, and that was about the most intimidating thing of the whole event.”
Ironically, the Department of Natural Resources had given the school the lock for the dumpster the week before after a bear had gotten into it one night.