Bears Gone Wild
Break-ins driven by natural need for hybrid cars, electronics
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The Summer of the Bear continues. This time, black bears upstaged their more famous grizzly cousins by breaking into a Circuit City and trashing a Toyota Prius.
Thanks to these incidents, we have important new bear behavior observations: 1) They crave the latest consumer electronics at bargain-basement prices just as much as we do, and 2) they’re not so much into the hybrid-car thing.
A startled black bear busted through the glass door of a Colorado Springs Circuit City yesterday, cracking another glass and snooping around before leaving and disappearing into a residential area. The 250-pound bear had been pursued by police since 4:30 a.m., and took momentary refuge under the soft, blue glow of about a thousand plasma TVs around 7:13 a.m. Wildlife authorities don’t believe the bear to be a threat, and expect it to make its way up a drainage into the mountains soon. Thankfully for us all, the store’s security cameras captured the event in charming stop-motion video.
Meanwhile, another black bear several thousand miles north in Juneau, Alaska, somehow trapped itself inside a 2006 Toyota Prius. Not satisfied with the car’s sleek design, incredible gas mileage, or reduced carbon footprint, the large black bear proceeded to shred the dash, claw the upholstery, and rip off panels. Before leaving, he or she decided to show the utmost contempt for eco-drivers and Toyota engineers alike by defecating in the front seat. Either this bear is more of a Hummer fan, or it doesn’t think the Prius goes far enough. Either way, it looks like the owners will be riding a bike until their insurance company sorts it out.
Bears — they’re so like us.
Frantic bear pays visit to electronics store (Rocky Mountain News)
Video: CNN
Trapped black bear trashes Toyota (Juneau Empire)