LAWRENCE, Mass. — A young black bear’s jaunt through Massachusetts on Monday came to a swift end early in the afternoon as it was tracked down and tranquilized by police. The bear was then carted off by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

It took two tranquilizer darts to sedate the male bear, which Massachusetts Environmental Police Lt. David Brouillette said was about 2 years old and weighed about 100 pounds. 

“The bear’s got strength, they’re real strong through their shoulders,” Brouillette said. “But as far as damage, I think they’re more afraid of us than we are of them.”

The bear had been sighted several times roaming around the Tower Hill neighborhood in Lawrence shortly before noon Monday. Police started receiving reports of the bear in various locations.

The bear could have lived in the city, Brouillette said, thought it wasn’t clear where it was from. There were reports that the bear had been sighted in Methuen, a city 2 miles south of Lawrence on Sunday, he said.

“He’s just traveling, trying to find an area of his own,” Brouillette said.

Brouillette said it had been about a decade since he’d last seen a bear in a dense residential area like Lawrence. That time was in Haverhill, he said.

Two Lawrence siblings said they saw the bear while driving in the neighborhood and ran to alert police at a nearby work site. It was the first time they’d ever seen a bear in their neighborhood.

“That was so crazy, I’m still kind of nervous,” said 18-year-old Amada Castillo, who took a video of the bear running through the street and posted it on social media site Snapchat.

“I was in shock,” she added.

Environmental police and the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife responded to the scene along with Lawrence police and fire departments. No injuries were reported.

The furry bear caused a flurry of activity on an otherwise dreary day in the neighborhood as word of its adventures spread through social media. A few dozen people crowded around as police brought the bear out of the fenced-in area where it was found and transported it from its carrier onto the fed of a state pickup truck. As officials worked quickly to get the bear on ice to keep its temperature down and tag it, people swarmed the truck bed with cell phones, taking photos and video.

Kashinsky and Harmacinski writes for the Massachusetts, Eagle-Tribune.