PETER SAGAL, HOST:
We want to remind everybody they can join us most weeks back home at the Chase Bank Auditorium in Chicago, Illinois. For tickets and more information go to wbez.org, or you can find a link at our website waitwait.npr.org. Right now, panel, it's time for you to answer some questions about this week's news.
Alonzo, safety advocates are trying to make people more and more aware of the dangers of texting while walking. Well, we got a real cautionary tale this week when a California man was texting and failed to notice what as he almost walked into it?
ALONZO BODDEN: A building.
SAGAL: No. That happens every day.
BODDEN: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BODDEN: A hole in the ground.
SAGAL: No.
BODDEN: No. Let's see, he was texting and walking and...
SAGAL: He finally looked up when it growled.
BODDEN: Oh, a bear.
SAGAL: A bear.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: A 400-pound bear right in front of him. The man was walking out of his house area in a residential area in California. He was texting his boss to tell him he was running late. He looked up and OMG giant bear.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Excuse me, WTF?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
JESSI KLEIN: Tots almost walked into bear.
SAGAL: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: He turned and ran for his life, after of course stopping to Instagram it, you know.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: It took three tranquilizer darts for game officials to bring the bear down. With an additional two darts, they were able to make the man stop texting.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Running from game officials.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
BODDEN: I think at that point it's not your fault. I think if you're walking in a neighborhood, it is reasonable to not expect there to be a bear.
MO ROCCA: Yeah, that's true.
BODDEN: Now, I can see you walk into, you know, a fence or trip over a tricycle, but when there's a bear in the neighborhood, you're like OK, wait a minute, this is not my fault.
KLEIN: Well the reason the bear was there was that the bear was also texting.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
KLEIN: And the bear just wandered out and didn't realize where it was.
SAGAL: And the bear was like...
KLEIN: Oh my god, I'm in LA.
SAGAL: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.