RCMP warn Newfoundland residents after polar bear climbs on woman’s roof

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – If it weren’t for her neighbour’s home security camera, Bobbi Stevens would have had no idea the polar bear she saw Sunday evening had just descended from her roof.

Stevens said in an interview Tuesday she was reading in bed in St. Anthony, N.L., when her dog started barking at around 6:30 p.m. and ran out of the room.

She went to the front door thinking someone had knocked and says when she opened it, she was staring into the face of a polar bear a few feet away.

She slammed the door and called both 911 and her neighbour, who later showed her video footage in which the massive animal climbs onto her roof from a backyard snowbank and clomps around for about a minute.

Stevens says she’s glad she didn’t know the bear was up there until after her encounter — and she’s relieved the animal didn’t crash through her ceiling.

Stevens, 78, says polar bears are a familiar springtime sight in the northern community of St. Anthony, especially if the sea ice is thick, and RCMP are warning residents in the area to exercise caution.