Gina Helsel from Daytona Beach, Florida, often lets her pet dog outside to chase away neighborhood cats, but this time she got a surprise. 

Shocking camcorder footage captured the Florida resident’s surprise when she came face-to-face with a massive bear at her front door. 

Gina Helsel’s dog alerted her owner with its barks that a cat had appeared on her porch, a common occurrence for the Daytona Beach resident. 

However, when she arrived at the door, she was shocked to find a giant black bear standing before her. 

A video of the call footage shows Helsel walking outside and popping her head out from around the corner to realize it wasn’t a cat but a bear that had decided to rummage through her neighbors’ garbage cans. 

The terrified resident screams and rushes to the door but struggles with the lock. For a brief moment, the bear might pounce on her before she enters the house. 

My brother called me last night and said: “Gina, only you can scream like that,” Helsel told WESH2. 

She continued her story, “A bear had gotten into a neighbor’s trash can, and I caught him in the act.” 

When Helsel and her dog ran into the house, the bear ran off in the opposite direction. 

The woman said she is always looking for alligators and snakes and is afraid of coyotes, but she had never considered bears. 

Her neighborhood is near a wildlife area, so the animals are always close to home. 

According to Helsel, she doesn’t hold a grudge against the bear for scaring her and “doesn’t want anything to happen to it.” 

Residents report bear sightings in the area almost weekly, so authorities urge them to keep their trash safe and remove bird feeders and other food sources from their homes.