NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (NBC) — Some North Kingstown residents are having an unwelcome visitor prowl their backyards. A bear has been spotted along West Allenton Road in recent weeks.
Alexis Tulli told NBC she saw the bear in her yard Thursday night after it knocked over her chicken coop.
"It walked straight up that way with the chicken in its mouth," Tulli said, pointing to the wooded area behind her home.
It was the second time this week that the bear had toppled her coop and taken a chicken.
"I think it's slightly disturbing that there's a bear in the neighborhood with children, animals, pets, and there's really not a lot of reaction to it. There's nobody out here looking for it," Tulli said.
The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management told NBC it started getting calls about bear sightings in the West Allenton Road area a few weeks ago.
DEM says it's possible that this is the same bear was roaming Cranston last year.
The North Kingstown bear has visited Diana Schostag's backyard, too.
"We're in a full blown war, me and the bear," Schostag said.
The bear has destroyed about six of Schostag's bird feeders in the last several days.
"I've been here 17 years and it's never happened before…I just hope he goes elsewhere. I take everything in at night and hope for the best,” Schostag said.