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“I’m screaming and stuff”: Video of bear chasing 11-year-old into Pennsylvania dollar store goes viral, terrified boy speaks out

A viral video shows an 11-year-old boy being chased by a black bear into a Pennsylvania Family Dollar, as the child recounts the terrifying moment he thought he might be attacked.
posted by Ashray BS
Wednesday 11/19/2025 at 6:41AM EST
  • Black bear "Honey" can be found in the black bear enclosure in the North American animal world "Manitoba" in Osnabrück Zoo. (Photo by Friso Gentsch/picture alliance via Getty Images)
    Black bear "Honey" can be found in the black bear enclosure in the North American animal world "Manitoba" in Osnabrück Zoo. (Photo by Friso Gentsch/picture alliance via Getty Images)

    Surveillance video of a dramatic showdown between an 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy and a black bear, which chased the child into a Family Dollar store and up onto a checkout counter, has gone viral.

    The terrifying ordeal took place in Markleysburg, Fayette County and has now caught the attention of millions after the boy has recalled how he feared he might be mauled.

    Outside the store, the child, Cole Frazee, had gone to see how his father was doing when he suddenly saw a big black bear watching him. What had started as an inquisitive moment quickly spiraled into panic when the bear charged towards him.

    "At first I thought it was going to turn around. When it runs after me, I turn around, I run in the store, I’m screaming and stuff. The thing was like a foot and a half away from me," Frazee told CBS Pittsburgh.

    Footage taken from a surveillance camera outside the store shows Frazee running through the entrance shortly before the bear trails by. Inside he fluttered through the aisles to get away, screaming for help.

    Cole Frazee and the store cashier's quick thinking saved them from the bear

    The only other person inside the store at the time, a cashier, sprang into action. Frazee ran over to her, and they got up on the checkout counter together as a way of distancing themselves from the bear.

    Frazee said the clerk snagged her coat, keys and phone before they both made a run for it to the front doors when the bear’s focus moved elsewhere. The pair fled through an aisle to a parking lot and then into a car.

    Only minutes after they departed, the CCTV footage shows the beast leapt over the checkout counter where both had been standing. The bear roamed around the store for about 10 minutes before exiting. The ordeal left Frazee rattled but thankful.

    "It was definitely a crazy experience. That's like one in a million right there," he said.

    According to local authorities, earlier signs of increased bear activity in the region, and such encounters are said to be alarming but not entirely unexpected for this time of year.

    Black bears are more mobile in the late fall in search of food before hibernation, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Black bears may have a wide range of sizes with the largest males occasionally standing as tall as 600 pounds. Though black bears are generally considered not threatening, they can act ferociously if irritated.

    TOPICS: Bear, Cole Frazee, black bear, Fayette County, Human Interest, Pennsylvania


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