Tip this cable guy! NBC New York reports that a Cablevision technician was on a call at a Hopatcong, NJ home when he discovered a bear sleeping in the basement.

Apparently the bear had been seen in the neighborhood earlier in the day, but when the cable guy spotted him, the creature ran away. New Jersey Fish and Game officials found it later and tranquilized it: "it walked a few blocks over to Missouri Trail and eventually fell asleep." The bear is reportedly around 500 pounds.

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

Cable tech Dave Cornine told Patch, "I didn't know what it was at first, but honestly, my first reaction was to run. I threw my tools to the ground, I threw my light to the ground and I didn't know what to expect. I've encountered snakes, bats—all kinds of silly things. This was crazy."

NJ is in the middle of a bear hunt, to thin the bear population.