Canyon residents spot bear eating from trash cans

Glendale may have another hungry bear on its hands.

Chevy Chase Canyon residents this week reported seeing a 400-pound bruin in the same area two nights in a row rifling through trash.

“When I saw it, I was scared,” said Caroline Muradian, who spotted the bear sifting through her trash on the 2500 block of East Chevy Chase Tuesday night.

The bear was likely after the chicken, rice and pastries that she had thrown in the trash earlier that day, she said.

The bear didn’t appear to be bothered by human presence, Muradian added, even after police arrived and tried to shoo it away.

Twenty minutes later, the bear eventually disappeared into a nearby hillsides.

Residents reported seeing a bear on Monday night in the same neighborhood, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

The latest sightings come just a month after the headline-grabbing black bear with a taste for meatballs — dubbed “Glen Bearian” by a Twitter account set up during the media coverage — was relocated to the Angeles National Forest after it spent weeks snacking out of trash bins in North Glendale and La Crescenta.

Officials with the California Department of Fish and Game on Wednesday said they couldn’t immediately say whether it was the same bear, which was roughly the same size. “Glen Bearian” was tagged before being released, which is how authorities could verify the animal’s return if the bear again was tranquilized.

But state officials generally do not intervene in wild animal sightings unless there is an immediate threat to public safety.

Lorenz said that after the most recent sightings, police notified animal control and state fish and game officials.

“There is always a chance that a bear removed from one area could return to that same area,” state fish and game spokesman Andrew Hughan said in an e-mail.

Glendale hasn’t been the only spot popular with bears lately. A few weeks ago, a brown bear and her two cubs captured media attention after they were spotted resting in a tree in Altadena, apparently attracted by a residential trash bin that contained discarded birthday cake.

Officials have warned residents against leaving their trash bins out on the night before garbage pickup.

For Muradian, lesson learned, she said.