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A California teenager was left with a bloody slash on his face after a bear climbed through his bedroom window and clawed at him.
Kevin Wood was home with his mom Darah Wood, in Crestline, about 30 minutes outside San Bernardino when the wild animal attacked him on June 15.
The mom told KTLA 5 she recalled hearing 'a little bit of a ruckus' around 5.45am before she spotted her 19-year-old non-verbal autistic child step out of his room with a gash on his face.
'I see him and his face is just covered with blood. I could see his lip was entirely split,' Wood told the outlet.
The frantic mother quickly applied pressure to her son's wounds to stop the bleeding as she tried to figure out what had happened.
'He's moderately autistic, so he's pretty much only verbal when he wants to be,' Wood said, explaining that he did not explicitly say what had happened to him.
Kevin then started to place bandages on his injuries, leading his mother to uncover he also had several scratches on his stomach.
As she tried to comprehend what took place, Wood realized a bear was on her property and that it likely reached into her son's window and struck him.
Kevin Wood, 19, was attacked by bear after it broke through it's window and clawed him, his mother said
Surveillance footage captured by Holly Hill Chalet, a retreat in Crestline, captured several recent bears encounters. The bear who attacked the teenager is not one of the bears seen in the footage
'It's very big and black and the snout is sort of a light brown,' she recalled.
Wood immediately grabbed a pot and a spoon and started banging them together to scare off the animal.
After making sure everything was under control, Wood took her son to the hospital to get treated for his injuries, she said.
Wood said bear sightings are very common in the area, especially because her property sits so close to the San Bernardino National Forest.
But neighbors said the sightings have been more frequent, and the animals have been daring recently.
Surveillance footage captured by Holly Hill Chalet, a retreat in Crestline, captured several recent bears encounters.
The bear who attacked the teenager is not one of the bears seen in the footage.
Ring doorbell footage captured by Wood's neighbor, Anita Hodson, also showed a large bear knocking over a gate in her yard before scrounging through her backyard.
At one point, the clip showed the bear standing up on its hind legs as it attempted to pick at her bird feeder.
Another bear was seen standing on its hind legs as it attempted to pick at her bird feeder in a neighbor's yard
'It just seems a bit different this year. I get quite a lot of bears anyway because of my location, I'm on the rim, but these bears seem to not be so scared,' Hodson told the local outlet.
Officials are gathering evidence including DNA samples in a bid to hopefully track the down the animal which attacked Kevin, Cort Klopping with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said.
Klopping added: 'Gathering DNA from the scene as well as the victim and then, once those DNA results come back, there will be, potentially, capture efforts involved to locate the bear in question.'
He also urged people in the area to stay alert, especially during the warmer months when bears are out more.
Residents are also urged to remove any attractants from their properties like garbage and food.
If you are approached by a bear, your best bet is to remain as calm as you can and stand still.
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