Bear breaks into Pennsylvania retirement home, nurses take action: “I grabbed a walker and was hitting him”

By Madeline Bartos, Christopher DeRose

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INDIANA, Pennsylvania ( KDKA ) — Nursing homes are used to having visitors, but a retirement community in western Pennsylvania had a rather unbearable guest on Tuesday night. Presbyterian Senior Living, which runs St. Andrew’s Village in Indiana, Pennsylvania, said a juvenile male black bear broke through a window a little after 11 p.m.

Officials said he was looking for food, but what he found was Charlene Elliot and a few other St. Andrew’s nurses.

Nurses confront bear

“I grabbed a walker and was hitting him, trying to get him away from the residents,” Elliot said. “Cause my thought was he was going to, from quick reaction from them, he’s going to maul them or swipe, slap at them. That was my worst fear.”