No, a Bear Was Not Spotted Strolling Around Downtown Evansville

Chances are you've seen a post going viral locally on Facebook claiming a black bear was caught on camera over the weekend wandering around downtown Evansville. Even though it's been shared over 4,600 times as of this writing, and several people who reacted with comments seem to believe it, the story is, as they say, #FakeNews.

The post was written and shared by "The Tri-State Beet," a local Facebook page who bills itself as "the area's top satire based news channel." The page has shared similar false stories much like the popular satirical news site, The Onion.

The post claims a black bear was spotted on security cameras at Tropicana Casino "roaming downtown Evansville" on the night of Saturday, October 11th (2020). It goes on to say the bear then made it's way to the Old National Bank parking lot before heading towards the river. It even includes a quote from "EPD and Animal Control" that suggests the animals are in our area, and that sightings like this may become commonplace.

The post also includes three photos of a bear strolling through a parking lot and down the sidewalk of a street. Those photos are real, however they aren't from security cameras downtown, or anywhere in Evansville for that matter.

Copying and pasting one of the images links into Google Images shows the photos are from a story on KARE-TV's website, an NBC affiliate in St. Paul, Minnesota dated June 19th, 2020 about an actual bear actually strolling through a populated area known as Union Depot.

File this one under "Just Because It's On Facebook Doesn't Mean It's True."

[Source: The Tri-State Beet on Facebook / KARE-TV]