Girl escapes bear claws
Bruin tries to snatch Scout from sleeping bag

Thursday, June 07, 2007
By DANIEL HAUSMANN
The Express-Times Easton, PA.

A New Jersey Girl Scout got a rude awakening early Sunday morning when a bear tried to pull her out of her tent at a campground in the Poconos.

Celeste Tietz, 11, of Franklin Township, Warren County, managed to grab a tent-support pole and slide out of her sleeping bag as the bear was tugging at it. Tietz and four other girls slept in bags on cots.

"I was sleeping and I woke up because I fell on the floor," Tietz said. "Then something started pulling me towards the front of my tent and tried to pull me out."

After Tietz slid out of the sleeping bag, she jumped into a fellow Scout's cot and the girls started screaming for help. Tietz's mother, Cathy, and other Scout leaders said the bear then moseyed around their camp site, approaching other tents.

The Scout leaders were able to load the campers, about 15 of them, into a van and took them to the camp's mess hall.

"It was a scary situation," troop leader Terri DeTore said.

Shortly after midnight before the 11-year-old's bear encounter, DeTore said she heard a ruckus coming from a neighboring camp site.

Because of the bear encounter, Camp Mosey Wood in White Haven, Luzerne County, has been closed to tent campers for the next two weekends, according to Ann Meredith, chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania.

"Everybody will be using cabins and there will be no outside cooking," Meredith said.

Bears can be attracted to camp areas by food, toothpaste and as Meredith put it "pretty-smelling shampoo." Campers and Scout leaders receive education and warnings about bears when they register for camp. Bear warnings are also posted.

"Bears are a fact of life," Meredith said. "We're living in their habitat."

Cathy Tietz said there was no food out at her camp before the Sunday morning incident.

Meredith said a warden with the Pennsylvania Game Commission set a bear trap at the camp. A message left for game commission officials was not returned.

Camp officials also are reviewing emergency procedures.

"We'll use this as an opportunity to further educate Girl Scouts about bear safety," Meredith said.

Reporter Daniel Hausmann can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at dhausmann@express-times.com.