Marge Pooler has had the same American flag hanging off the garage of her Lowelltown Road, Wiscasset home for years. The sun has faded it some and the wind rolls it up and Pooler unrolls it. But on July 31, when she went outside to get the morning paper, something was different.

The flag had been chewed on, or that’s what it looked like, she said Aug. 3. Near the center are a series of holes over the stripes. Some tearing and another hole are inches closer to the stars.

Pooler has been wondering if a bear might have done the damage, in part because the flag is in a holder about five feet off the ground.

Contacted Aug. 3, Wiscasset Police Chief Jeff Lange said the department had received no new reports of bear sightings since the ones earlier this summer. He said Lowelltown Road is near where some of the sightings occurred, but he doubted a bear damaged Pooler’s flag. He’s never heard of a bear attacking a flag, Lange said.

Pooler did not contact police about the flag.

She has had the home since 1995 and has never seen a bear on the property. A racoon or other animal might have done the damage, she said, adding, something has been setting off her motion-sensitive flood light. The bird feeders near the driveway have not been bothered, and the part of the garage where the flag holder is mounted has no marks on it, she said.

Pooler is shopping for a flag to replace the damaged one. What else can she do, she said. “But I’m a little afraid to put it up,” in case whatever caused the damage does it again with the new flag, she said.