VIDEO: Texting Guy Barely Escapes Bumping Into Bear

NPR | By Mark Memmott

Published April 11, 2012 at 2:15 PM EDT

If this doesn't make you want to put down that cellphone, we don't know what will.

Watch what happened as Los Angeles TV station KTLA was tracking a black bear as it wandered through a neighborhood in La Crescenta, Calif., Tuesday morning.

Local resident Vaz Terdandenyan almost walked right into the 400-pound animal.

He'd gone outside to see why a helicopter was hovering over the area, and "I was texting my boss that I would be late for work because something is going on," he told the station afterward.

"I'm coming down the stairs and I see the bear coming up the stairs toward me," Terdandenyan added. "I turned back and I ran for my life."

All we can say is OMG.

Mark Memmott

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

See stories by Mark Memmott

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