Black bear up a tree in Rancho Cucamonga triggers school lockdown

Local police and state fish and wildlife officials spent the better part of Wednesday morning trying to get a bear out of a tree near a junior high school in Rancho Cucamonga.

Officials said the black bear was first spotted before 8 a.m. near Hellman and Lemon avenues, then scampered more than a mile east to Highland and Hermosa avenues, where it climbed a eucalyptus tree and gazed down at police and California Department of Fish and Wildlife officers below for about an hour.

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The bear’s presence near Vineyard Junior High School prompted Alta Loma School District officials to put the campus on lockdown until the bear was captured.

Authorities said the bear eventually descended the tree and then was tranquilized by wildlife officials, who put it in a box and planned to take it back to the forest.

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UPDATES:

11:09 a.m.: This article has been updated with a report that the bear has been captured.

This article was originally published at 10:29 a.m.