After cooling off in Granada Hills pool, wayward bear gets a tranquilizer dart

It was 85 degrees in Granada Hills on Tuesday afternoon, and humans weren’t the only ones looking to take a dip.

A heavily panting black bear triggered a neighborhood lockdown around noon when the beast traipsed through a residential neighborhood and plunged into the pool of a home in the 13000 block of Whistler Avenue.

LAPD units along with Department of Fish and Wildlife officers stalked the bear for roughly an hour before finally shooting it with a tranquilizer dart. Much of the spectacle was captured by hovering news helicopters.

The bear — which bore a wildlife tag reading “493” in its right ear — was spotted around noon, sitting in a shaded spot of a front yard.

Responding police officers and game wardens blocked the street that the house was on, but they did not approach the furry animal. The bear eventually got up and sauntered into a backyard, where it took a dip in the pool and paddled around for a few minutes before moving on to another backyard, then a front yard and scampering across several driveways. Media outlets following the animal somehow lost track of it in the neighborhood.

The moment was also an opportunity for the internet to unleash its worst puns:

After losing track of the bear for some time, game officers located it again near a neighborhood drainage culvert around 1 p.m. and shot a tranquilizer dart into its right shoulder. As of 1:17 p.m., officers were waiting for the bear to fall asleep.

Actually this wasn’t Bear “493’s” first run-in with law enforcement. In 2016, this male black bear was tranquilized in Sylmar and tagged, according to Peter Tira, information officer for the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Tira added that they first got reports about this bear on July 11 and had been out in recent days to talk with residents to allay some fears.

“This is not a problem bear — not an aggressive bear,” Tira said.

“We believe the bear was seeking relief from the heat.”

benjamin.oreskes@latimes.com

@boreskes

UPDATES:

2:05 p.m.: This article was updated with a public information offiicer’s recounting of a previous official encounter with the bear.

1:50 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details about the bear from a Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman.

1:20 p.m.: This article was updated with details about the bear being shot with a tranquilizer dart.

This article was originally published at 1:15 p.m.