Some people can be a real bear before breakfast, but Chik-fil-A employees saw an actual black bear Thursday morning outside the Southridge Centre restaurant.
"Our employees just happened to look over out the window and the bear was just chilling in the parking lot," said Andrew Turley, the restaurant's night shift director.
Turley said the bear appeared to be young, and expects it got separated from its mother.
Some guests at the restaurant told employees that they've seen a family of bears on the hillside just north of Southridge Center, Turley said.
Although the guests said they've seen bears in the area before, this is the first time a bear has come close to the Chick-fil-A restaurant, Turley said.
He said there weren't very many guests at the restaurant Thursday morning, which is why he thinks the bear stayed for so long. Once people started approaching the bear, it took off running towards the Sam's Club parking lot, Turley said.
He said the bear wasn't able to get any chicken from the restaurant or its dumpster.
Sheila Jett, who was in her car in the Chick-fil-A parking lot, saw the bear running through the Buffalo Wild Wings parking lot. She then recorded the bear on her cellphone and uploaded the video to Facebook.
"I kind of blinked my eyes a few times because I couldn't believe I was actually seeing a bear," Jett said in a Facebook message.
She said she watched the bear run through the Chick-fil-A parking lot, then towards the Wal-Mart parking area. One truck came close to hitting it, Jett said, but she didn't think the bear was injured.