to approach

For some reason I was taken aback today by the use of 'near' as a verb with a human agent.

I've heard sentences like this in the news before (and they sound OK to me):
"The australian dollar neared 89 american cents today..."

But today I read this online and I had to read it a couple of times because something seemed odd about it:
"As I neared them I began to better hear their conversation"

Maybe I'm just going crazy, but is this a common use of a verbed 'near'? And if so, why does it sound so weird to me?