Family Reports Bear Attack Near Gore Area

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife pulled a bear trap near a family's home Tuesday, after a reported attack last week in the Lake Tenkiller area.

Wildlife experts didn't find any signs of a bear, but one of the victims says he has the scars to prove it.

Cody Troxell has no doubt he came face-to-face with a bear on his property just north of Gore in Sequoyah County.

Cody: "I just ran like crazy. I didn't even see it at all. It was gone. I was already by the porch inside."
Tony: “Do you think you were attacked? You think those are claw marks?”
Cody: "Yeah. After it healed up a little bit and I looked at it, and the doctor or whoever told me looked at the lines and everything. They look pretty much like a bear claw I seen on the ground. It got my leg as well."

His brother, Jamie Troxell, tried to see for himself before running for help too.

"I got all the way over there, maybe 15 or 20 feet away from it, and I heard a low, low growl, and I know it was no big cat,” he said. “And all of a sudden I hear a 'boom, boom, boom' on the ground, so it made me do a back flip and I ran back to the house. I said, 'open up the door, open up the door.’”

Their mom, Sue Sweet, got the phone call about her sons being nearly attacked; she heard the whole thing over the phone.

"The next thing I know I heard, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, what the? Somebody help me.’ And the next thing you know, I could hear like a, what you hear now, sounded like rolling thunder, a very low toned base growl," she said.

8/6/2016 Related Story: Possible Bear-Human Encounter Near Lake Tenkiller Investigated

Even though wildlife experts didn't find or trap the bear, the family says the animal has killed two of their free range chickens and dragged off a trash barrel.

"We're not feeding our dog outside. We're not leaving our dog outside and we're not letting the small cats, and I'm not letting my chickens loose no more," Sweet said.