California Teacher, Mrs. Salmon (Yes, That’s Her Name), Leaves Classroom To Print Out Papers, Comes Back To Wild Bear Wandering Around

It's back to school season - even for bears. A California teacher had the shock of her life as she was trying to prepare her classroom in Pine Mountain Club, California for the quickly approaching school year. Elaine Salmon (yes that's her REAL NAME) was attempting to get things ready for a classroom full of students, but a young bear in the area thought it would check things out prior to the kids arriving. Salmon, a third through fifth grade teacher (God bless her soul), went to make copies of papers in the school's main office area. As she tells the story, when she came back to her room, she came face-to-face with a young bear. Once she caught her breath, Elaine's instincts led her to lock the bear inside the classroom and call for help. The only issue was that her phone was inside the room with the bear. She explained how everything went down and what her immediate next steps were to ABC 7 , saying: "I went over, went back to the office, closed the door and locked the bear in there and then I went back to the office to call my husband Ian. My first thought was, 'Is it going to do any damage?' I have a brand new floor and I already have my decorations up." Elaine's husband Ian, a retired police officer, showed up soon after and they got to work on coaxing the bear out of the classroom. The only way out was the way the bear presumably got in - through the door. So the couple worked together, with Elaine getting the bear's attention at the window and Ian unlocking the door and propping it open. Eventually, they were able to encourage the bear to go towards the door, and the smaller bear ran out the slightly ajar doorway - within feet of Ian, who was standing on the other side of the door. The Salmons (still can't get over that) then watched as the wild animal returned to its natural habitat, though not before it was able to explore the classroom and thoroughly look things over. You can check out the video of the bear inside the classroom below: https://twitter.com/ABC7/status/1821984998456443333 Fortunately, the bear did minimum damage to the classroom in the time that it spent inside. The only loss Salmon suffered were some snacks that the bear stole and ate out of the classroom's emergency earthquake kit, which seems like it's not a big deal. But funny enough, there was an earthquake the next day that hit the Pine Mountain Club area. That bear must have known something we didn't and decided to break into the rations a little early... Here's a news story about the incident just in case you can't get enough of the Salmon - Bear incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBAGLLjrhU0