First at Five, August 25, 2008

COLUMBIA COUNTY, Ga.---One Grovetown woman is convinced there's another bear in the area, but she's upset the Department of Natural Resources is not looking into it.

"My husband's van was parked [next to mine] and he was in between the two sleeping," said Carla Hill, who believes a bear was in her yard over the weekend.

They looked out their window and saw a big black figure in the rain. They thought it was a dog, but looked closer the next day.

"This is after the rains already hit it," she said, pointing to a mark in the ground. "There's still deep gouges in the ground. You can see the three claws and the back of the print right there."

She believes the bear made more imprints in the ground, too, where it slept. Another reason she's convinced is her son heard growling in the woods.

"If you look at the claw mark it's the half moon shape. The police officer confirmed that it was actually a bear," Hill said.

A deputy came out, but couldn't do anything, and neither could animal control. So far, neither has DNR.

Just this summer DNR caught two bears and there have been more than twenty sightings of them. They say this time there's just not enough evidence to do something.

"Normally if it's just they saw something that might be a bear and it hasn't done anything and hasn't hurt anybody, we frequently won't respond," said Vic VanSant of the Department of Natural Resources.

VanSant says there have been more bear sightings in the past few years, probably because of the growth in the area. With people moving near woods they're more likely to see bears.

"It really does make you nervous. You're always looking behind your back," said Hill.

She wants DNR to come out and set traps, but DNR says that can be dangerous because other animals can get into them and they can be dangerous to people as well.

Hill believes the real danger lies with children, especially the ones who wait for the school bus in the dark.

"Chances are the bear's gonna run, but there's always a chance that its going to go for one of these kids," said Hill.

So is there a bear sleeping in her yard? She'll sleep much better knowing the answer.

DNR says they will go out if there are more definite clues there's a bear in the area, or if there are more sightings.