A Gwinnett County family captured video footage of a bear cub roaming around their neighborhood this week.

Sugar Hills resident Aldo Sixtos took a cellphone video of the bear cub scrounging through garbage in the neighborhood. The family at first thought they were watching a large dog roam the backyard. Then it turned and showed its long nose. For about 40 minutes the family watched and shot video of the cub as it checked the trash and climbed a tree.

“It was the first time we’d seen a bear, you know, so we didn’t know if it was a little boy or a mom,” Sixtos told Channel 2 Action News. “We didn’t know.”

Gwinnett County 911 and Animal Control received multiple calls last Saturday reporting a bear in Sugar Hills.

“The poor thing look scared to death,” one caller told the news station. “It ran right across the road in front of a bunch of cars.”

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said the bear is likely a young male who recently left his mother to fend for himself.

A spokesperson for Gwinnett police told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that police officers could not independently locate the animal last Saturday.

Earlier this week in metro Atlanta, school officials spotted a young black bear at an elementary and middle school in Forsyth County.

In case of a bear sighting, Gwinnett County residents should call animal control at this number: 770-339-3200

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