A black bear entered an ice cream shop in South Lake Tahoe in the early morning and helped itself to strawberry ice cream before leaving when deputies arrived. Deputies saw the bear behind the counter and encouraged it to depart; no injuries occurred and no property damage was reported beyond the missing ice cream. Bear activity is high in the Lake Tahoe area, and people are advised never to feed bears or leave human food accessible. Break-ins and bold behavior have increased over recent summers, including euthanizations, a mother teaching a cub to break into homes, a multi-year serial breaker, instances of bears stalking people, and more vehicle strikes.
After all, they're pretty good at rummaging around for their own human food. The Chronicle reports on an amusing example of this, as in the wee hours of this past Sunday morning, a black bear broke into the Ice Cream Shop at South Lake Tahoe's Camp Richardson. And as you would guess, that bear sauntered behind the counter and unapologetically helped themselves to the ice cream.
The El Dorado County Sheriff's Office was called to the scene. The deputies could barely believe their eyes as they saw a large bear behind the counter of the shop, that office said in a Monday Facebook post. With some encouragement, the bear ultimately left, but only after showing interest in the strawberry ice cream. No one was injured, and the bear did not cause any damage, short of relieving the shop of some delicious strawberry ice cream.
I scream with laughter over this particular incident, but the brazenness of bears has been a serious and escalating problem in the Lake Tahoe region for the last several summers. The Chronicle points out that just this year alone, a separate South Lake Tahoe bear had to be euthanized after years of home break-ins and aggressive behavior, and a separate mama bear is currently under watch because she's teaching her little cub how to break into homes.
Collection
[
|
...
]