A South Carolina woman successfully chased off a bear by using her "teacher voice" as shown in a video shared on her YouTube account.
Debbie Tomlinson, who had previously worked in Greenville County as a school teacher, is heard coaxing the bear off the deck of her Sapphire, North Carolina condominium in the video, which begins with her firmly knocking on the glass door and telling the bear, "That was not OK" as the bear walks across the deck railing and toward her bird feeders.
Tomlinson then used her "teacher voice" after several more knocks on the glass and tells the bear "you get down from my porch right now."
"I opened the door and coaxed her down," Tomlinson told WYFF 4, referring to the commanding tone used in the video.
"Well, of course (I used that voice,) she added. "It works every time. I wasn't afraid. I just didn't want to lose my feeders. It was very exciting."
The bear then jumps off the deck and climbs down to the ground below.
Tomlinson said initially grabbed her phone after noticing a "nursing mama bear whose young cub was foraging in the foliage below."
Tomlinson, who said she had previously worked at Southside High School in the late 1970s before later teaching at Hillcrest Middle School, Mauldin High School and Greer High School, said she's had several prior bear sightings in the North Carolina mountains in the past.
"Last year, we saw a mama and three cubs ambling across the yard beside the condos," Tomlinson told WYFF 4. "We keep our car doors locked as well. Bears know how to open them."