Investigators say Saturday night, John Chadwick Montgomery broke into Hollywild Animal park and absconded with Newell, a 7-month old black bear. Joy Crawford says Montgomery, her cousin, pulled up into her driveway on Sunday and told her he had stolen a bear. “He said he just wanted a bear,” says Crawford. “He’s always been great with animals and has had a lot of exotic pets, so it really didn’t surprise me. He has done a lot of stupid things.”
Crawford says Montgomery told her the bear was not his initial target at Hollywild. Deputies say after breaking in, he tried to steal a capuchin monkey, but another monkey stopped the attempted abduction. “One of ‘em jumped on his back and bit him,” says Crawford. “He threw it down and then went for the bear.”
According to police reports, Montgomery then brought his purloined pet to Flying J Travel Plaza on I-85 in Blacksburg. Deputies say he offered people the chance to pet the bear for a dollar. But his cousin says he was actually only charging half that price. “He told me he asked for 50 cents,” says Crawford, who was clearly exasperated by her cousin’s story. “Why would you take (the bear) up there and walk it around in a parking lot after you stole it? That’s just as stupid as stealing it.”
Crawford says Montgomery was keeping the bear in a large pen behind his home. She says it was spacious and had water and food for Newell, and even had a tyre swing. But she says she knew she had to do the right thing and return Newell to Hollywild. She says she called police, then went to Montgomery’s home. She says she and her son put Newell in the backseat of her car. A Department of Natural Resources officer met them at the home and escorted them back to Hollywild in Inman.
“We had to have a police escort because if we had gotten pulled over, we would have had a hard time explaining the bear in the backseat,” says Crawford.
With news video.
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