Buckingham - A family in Lee County gets a strange knock at the door.

A big black bear!

Now a neighborhood is on alert for the hairy intruder.

The bear is on the loose in the area of Higgins Avenue in Buckingham.

Sunday night, Mark Barry and his wife got a visitor at the front door they were not expecting: a 300 pound bear.

"I thought it was kind of crazy. It was actually moving the door handle," Barry said.

The bear jiggled the door knob, but the door was locked.

The four legged creature was able to get into the garage sifting through trash eating whatever it could find.

"It was a pretty good size bear," Barry said.

Mark reacted with a gun.

"I grabbed my gun came out," he said.

Mark shot at the bear three times.

The bear took off running into nearby woods.

Now Florida Fish and Wildlife is in this neighborhood going door to door warning people about the danger.

People in the Buckingham neighborhood say they haven't seen any bears before.

But Lt. Darrin Riley, from FWC says the bear population is increasing, so sightings are on the rise all over lee county and people need to be careful.

"They need to keep the trash in for the next 2-3 weeks and hopefully this bear will naturally leave the area."

FWC says it's unlikely the bear would attack a human, however people still need to make sure they are on alert.

Even though Mark shot at the bear it's unclear if he actually hit it.

So until it's found this community is keeping an eye out securing their trash and front doors.

If you see a bear in your neighborhood, call FWC at 1-888-404-FWCC (3922).