Prepare to hear "You could get attacked by a bear!" every time someone tells you that you really shouldn't text while walking. After all, that's exactly what almost happened to a man in California on Tuesday.
California-based station KTLA 5 even captured the incident on video. The clip's brief, but if you pay attention you'll notice a very distracted man staring at his cellphone — supposedly while typing a text message — as he strolls into the direction of a 300-pound bear. Before walking directly into the animal however, he glances up and realizes the danger. The guy naturally does what anyone else would do and high-tails it outta there.
Whew!
"I was texting my boss that I would be late for work because something is going on, and I'm coming down the stairs and I see the bear coming up the stairs toward me," the man told KTLA when asked about the incident. "I turned back and I ran for my life."
In case you're wondering, the almost-attack took place in La Crescenta, California — where a "bear visit is not unusual [...] especially on trash day," according to NBC Los Angeles' Jonathan Lloyd. The bear that could've snacked on a cellphone user was first spotted around 3 a.m. local time. He was caught on aerial video around 7 a.m. and then finally tranquilized and captured shortly after that time.
Of course this strange texting-related incident is not the first time we've seen someone accidentally endanger himself or herself while texting and walking.
In Jan. 2011 a woman fell into a water fountain while walking through a mall and text messaging. Video footage of the accident was posted to YouTube and quickly made its rounds on the Internet.
And in April 2012, this reporter bruised her knee on a desk corner because she was distracted by a text message alert. Thankfully, no one captured the incident on video.
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