NEED TO KNOW

• A black bear chased an 11-year-old boy into a Family Dollar in Markleysburg, Pa.

• “I’m probably going to be eaten by a bear,” the boy, Cole Frazee, remembers thinking to himself during the encounter

• The bear spent about 10 minutes in the store, and the incident was caught on security cameras

A Pennsylvania dollar store had an unusual visitor.

Cole Frazee was shopping with his father at a Family Dollar in Markleysburg, Pa., when he stepped out for a moment and came face to face with a black bear — and his mind immediately went to the worst-case scenario, he told CBS News Pittsburgh.

The 11-year-old told the outlet he feels lucky to be alive, recalling that at the moment, he was thinking to himself, “I’m probably going to be eaten by a bear.”

After encountering the towering animal, which ran after the boy, Frazee bolted back into the store, he recalled to CBS News Pittsburgh.

“And when it runs after me, I turn around, I run in the store. I’m, like, screaming and stuff,” the 11-year-old told the outlet, adding that the four-legged creature was about “a foot and a half away from me.”

Shortly after Frazee ran into the Markleysburg establishment, the black bear in tow, he narrowly escaped the animal thanks to a split-second decision.

“I took a left,” he recalled to CBS News Pittsburgh, “and the bear went straight.”

Speaking with the outlet, Frazee recalled his heart pounding as he attempted to evade the black bear while racing up and down the dollar store’s aisles. Eventually, he and a cashier in the store both jumped onto the counter to get a better view of the situation.

After they saw the bear head toward the back of the Family Dollar, away from the counter, they quickly gathered their things and exited the store.

“She grabbed her coat, the keys, and the phone, and we ran out of there,” Frazee recalled to CBS News. “When we ran out of there, we all got in the car.”

Security cameras caught the bear, now alone in the building, heading for the counter where Frazee and the employee had just been.

Surveillance footage obtained by CBS News Pittsburgh shows the wild animal climbing behind the counter. According to the outlet, the animal wandered around the store, rummaging and exploring, for about 10 minutes before leaving.

Frazee called the experience “one in a million,” telling the outlet that he was “kinda relieved” afterward.

“It was definitely a crazy experience,” he said.

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The Pennsylvania Game Commission explains that while “most bears will run from a human, some that live in close proximity to people can become habituated and appear indifferent.”

The animals — which eat more heavily in the autumn months — typically appear in neighborhoods and other populated areas if a food source is present, according to the state agency’s website.

“Bird feeders, garbage cans, and backyard grills all can draw bears,” the website states. “Bears that learn to forage on human-provided foods often become nuisances, causing property damage and increasing the risk of a human-bear encounter. Eliminating attractants typically prevents these types of problems.”

Read the original article on People