HAGERSTOWN -- Security staff chased a black bear off the Valley Mall parking lot Thursday night after it was spotted pacing outside J.C. Penney, mall marketing director Michele Wills said Friday.
Customers and employees leaving the mall as it closed spotted the approximately 200-pound bear at about 9 p.m., Wills said.
"It was going up and down through the parking lot right around J.C. Penney," she said.
A guard in a security vehicle tracked the bear with a spotlight until it ran across Massey Boulevard into a wooded area near the Dollar Tree store, Wills said.
No one was injured and no property damage was reported, she said.
Security staff warned employees at the Regal Valley Mall movie theater about the bear and checked for its return throughout the night, Wills said.
"Everybody's going to be keeping an eye out for it," she said.
The Washington County Sheriff's Department was called to the scene, and deputies notified the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wills said.