{"id":892690,"date":"2026-06-25T22:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T22:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/892690\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T22:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T22:00:19","slug":"new-berns-mascot-makes-unannounced-downtown-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/892690\/","title":{"rendered":"New Bern\u2019s mascot makes unannounced downtown visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">The above video is our WITN+ livestream and may not reflect the content in this story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">NEW BERN, N.C. (WITN) &#8211; A young black bear was spotted running through downtown New Bern this afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A WITN viewer shared photos of the bear after first spotting what she thought was an off-leash dog around 3:30 p.m. near the marinas. Once she got inside a nearby store, she realized it was actually a bear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">She said the bear was trapped inside a gated courtyard before jumping a fence onto Middle Street, where it ran past people strolling downtown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">As people screamed and scattered, she snapped photos after a parking enforcement officer yelled, \u201cIt\u2019s right behind you!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The bear was even seen running past banners featuring bears along South Front Street.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"The bear was spotted this afternoon.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/OD6TNELAFRFRDGIRP4IJLYUD5Q.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>The bear was spotted this afternoon.(Submitted photo)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The bear is New Bern\u2019s official mascot, with dozens of decorated bear statues throughout downtown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The viewer said the close encounter was a little scary, but she\u2019s glad she got the photos. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">She said visitors often ask why there are bears all over New Bern, and now she has a story to tell.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Black bear spotted on Thursday afternoon\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CVCXM6OLERBULLSPK4D4O6XPEA.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>Black bear spotted on Thursday afternoon(Submitted photo)<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WITN. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The above video is our WITN+ livestream and may not reflect the content in this story. NEW BERN,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":892691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[4284,361870,2418,10809,7026,2416,2451,7236,284120,58914,17878,284119,519,159,67,132,68,837,36907,34175,361869],"class_list":["post-892690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-banner","tag-banners","tag-bear","tag-bears","tag-black","tag-black-bear","tag-city","tag-downtown","tag-downtown-new-bern","tag-mascot","tag-nc","tag-new-bern","tag-north-carolina","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wildlife","tag-witn","tag-young","tag-young-black-bear"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116813000318072862","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}