PARIS - A bear cub, estimated to be about 2 years old, has apparently found a new home in the back of a local woman's truck.

Cindy Thibodeau, owner of klips hair salon in Norway, said paw marks found all over the interior of her 2001 Sport Trac Explorer, early Friday morning have been identified by a game warden as bear tracks.

"He's done this before," said Thibodeau of the cub's increasingly brazen behavior that has resulted in the animal climbing into the open back of the Explorer and curling up and sleeping before climbing out early in the morning before being seen.

Thibodeau, who lives on Stoney Brook off Buckfield Road with two small dogs, two cats and her two little boys, said Friday morning that she realized she had a potentially serious problem on her hands once she discovered a bear was sleeping only 20 feet away from the door of her house. After notifying the town, Game Warden Tony Gray was sent to the house to take a look.

"We have to move him," Thibodeau said Gray told her Friday morning.

Rather than try and trap the young bear with a cubby hole penchant for Thibodeau's pickup truck, Gray of Norway told her late Friday afternoon to make the impromptu bear den less inviting.

"He advised her to do stuff to make the bear uncomfortable in the truck, like putting mothballs or a cup of ammonia in the bed," warden service spokesman Mark Latti said by phone early Friday evening in Brunswick.

"Also, if she does hear the bear tonight, to turn on her house lights and make a lot of noise and spray it with something. Usually, if you make a lot of noise, that will make a bear uncomfortable. The first step with any nuisance animal is to try and scare it away. That's the easiest and least expensive solution and, usually the most effective," Latti added.

Gray didn't find or see the bear Friday, just marks it had made on Thibodeau's truck.

"Throughout the summer, we've had problems similar to this, but, generally, there's usually food involved," Latti added.

Thibodeau said there have been signs for months that the bear was around.

"We know he's been there at least three or four months. There have been lots of signs," said Thibodeau, including the broken metal shepherd's pole and bird feeder. The home owner said she has taken down the bird food and anything else that might attract bears and has been keeping her children and animals inside the house at night.

"He's damaging personal property," said Thibodeau noting the scratch marks on the tail of her truck that she has tried to conceal with stickers.

"He'll be back," she said.