Black bear startles B.C. man after poking around in garage [Video]

A man from B.C.’s Lower Mainland is being praised for his cool-headed response to a charging bear – after video of the tense encounter went viral online, with tens of millions of views.

Coquitlam resident Alex Gold said he was unloading groceries when the animal wandered into his open garage last Wednesday, which led to the startling confrontation.

“I came back to my car and I bumped into the bear,” Gold said. “She was kind of hissing.”

Security video Gold posted on Instagram shows the animal charging at him multiple times, as Gold claps his hands and slowly backs away, pinned between the bear and his parked SUV.

“No, no, no,” Gold tells the animal.

He eventually managed to get inside the vehicle, where he honked his horn to scare the animal –and a cub that appears toward the end of the video – away from the property.

Gold’s video has been viewed more than 36 million times since last week, generating much …