A man relaxing on a sunlounger outside his home in North Carolina was stunned when he looked up and saw a bear a few feet away staring at him. 

David Oppenheimer was texting on his phone when a motion detector alarm went off.

He told CNN: "I looked behind me and didn’t see anything. But about a minute later, the bear came along and was practically in front of me."

A doorbell video camera captured Mr Oppenheimer and the bear seeing each other at the same time, and both reacting with alarm.

Black bears are common in the area and Mr Oppenheimer had seen the animal before, rooting through his bins.

He said: "The bears here are very peaceful. This one just caught me off guard."