A female grizzly bear and her two cubs wandered into Cranbrook Monday morning about 7:30, up around the Southview neighbourhood at the top of 14th Avenue.

Chantal Marra saw the three bears come into her backyard. “They hung out for a while, then came around to the front of the house and started heading down the street.”

Marra activated the remote alarm on her van parked outside, to try to scare them off. “They changed direction, but kept going,” she said.

The neighbourhood dogs then caught wind of the bears, and began barking. Marra said at this, the bears retreated back towards the woods.

Conservation officers later reported the bears down around on the south side of Elizabeth Lake, and urged people in that area to exercise caution. If anyone sees the bears, they can call the wildlife hotline at 1-877-952-7277.

There’s nothing like a bear encounter to make one think of the lessons of the Bear Aware Program, keeping attractants like garbage, pet food and fruit secure.“It was nice to see that they didn’t find anything on our street, and got spooked and went back into the forest,” Marra said. “It makes you think about your garbage, and that kind of stuff.”