A North Carolina man dubbed the unluckiest in the state had the unlikely experience of being mauled by a bear -- four years after being struck by lightning.

Rick Oliver, 51, of Wake County, said he was attacked by a bear while working on his truck at about 2 a.m. June 3, leaving him with deep cuts on his wrist, the Raleigh News & Observer reported Thursday.

"You have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning than getting killed by a bear," a report published by the U.S. Forest Service's Bear Aware program reads.

However, Oliver had the unlikely experience of a bear attack only four years after being struck by lightning.

"The probability is infinitesimal," Ross Leadbetter, a statistician at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, said of Oliver's two life-threatening experiences. "The closest approximation is certainly zero."