Bear hanging out in tree causes stir in New Jersey neighborhood

SUMMIT, New Jersey (WABC) -- A New Year's Day surprise had a neighborhood in New Jersey buzzing: a bear, hanging out in a tree.

The bear made itself at home on a street in Summit, and curious people were coming by to check it out all day.

"I woke up at 10 and saw 50 people on the other side of the street and said what's going on in my house, I thought was something burning and I realized it was a bear on top of a tree," said homeowner Leonardo Osorio.

Up in the sky was not a bird, but a bear, right on Osorio's front yard.

"I hope he climbs down and he's calm, but I don't think he's a threat.. you need to be careful," said Osorio.

Neighbors aren't exactly sure when the bear scaled at least 40 feet up the tree on Ashland Road. They just woke up to all the gawkers outside.

Osorio said the bear wasn't there the previous day. "I had some friends coming, celebrating the New Year and they left about 2 a.m. He might have been there, there's no way to know," he said.

"We were on a walk with the dog and someone else on the walk asked if we had seen the bear yet, so they told us where to go to see the bear, and we came out to see it," said local resident Julie Jones.

The bear, unfazed by the excitement below, was sleeping most of the time, only waking up a few times to shift his position.