The video, shared below, inspired us to collect our six favorite bears v. humans stories, all from the last few years. Neither bears nor people were hurt in the making of these tales (although one, captured near the CU-Boulder campus, met with a sad fate shortly thereafter). Check them out below.
Number 6: August 8, 2009 "An Aspen fur store employee said a small bear wandered into the shop, browsed through the aisles and then left without hurting anyone."Mark Goodman said the bear walked through the open doorway of Mark Richards Fine Outerwear, at 427 East Cooper Ave., Saturday night.
"Goodman said an unidentified man followed the bear around, taking pictures despite Goodman's pleas for him to leave." -- 7News, August 11, 2009
Number 5: August 23, 2009 "A bear chomped on the steering wheel of Jeff Leistad's car in East Vail, Colorado Sunday night."It defecated on his passenger seat.
"And it deployed the air bags.
"'It was literally like out of the movies,' Leistad said. 'My whole interior is totaled.'" -- Vail Daily, August 24, 2009
Continue for more of our six favorite bears v. humans stories. Number 4: June 29, 2011 "Cops in Eagle received several phone calls on Wednesday from locals who saw a female black bear and three cubs rooting around in trash from a dumpster at the town's Burger King -- a sight that had attracted a small group of looky-loos, some of whom apparently wanted to upgrade the menu. Witnesses told an officer they'd seen at least two people buying hamburgers and feeding them to Mama Bear and her brood by hand." -- Westword, July 1, 2011 Number 3: April 26, 2012 "Yesterday morning, a bear that had clambered into a tree near the Williams Village dorms on the CU-Boulder campus was safely tranquilized and taken away by Colorado Parks and Wildlife personnel. An interesting story, sure, but not one that immediately seems of international interest. But a photo by Andy Duann, a staff photographer for the CU Independent, the campus news website, changed that equation in a huge way." -- Westword, April 27, 2012 Continue for more of our six favorite bears v. humans stories. Number 2: July 18, 2013 "On July 18, a full-grown black bear stopped in Lonigans Saloon in Estes Park. Owner Dave Callahan had just finished cleaning up the kitchen at 9 p.m., then took out the trash and headed home -- missing the bear by maybe five minutes. The bear first did a little dumpster diving, then wandered in the back door of the bar, which is kept open during operating hours in the summer. A local going home from work spotted the bear and followed him into the bar, yelling at the regulars to warn them. But the music was so loud that they couldn't hear him, Callahan says. In fact, many of them were unaware of the intruder. Fortunately, the bear -- estimated to be at least a 350-pounder -- wandered off without hurting anyone." -- Westword, July 25, 2013Number 1: July 31, 2013 "One bear must have been craving German food -- it pushed away an entire Dumpster from the Edelweiss Restaurant in Colorado Springs Wednesday night.
"The restaurant posted security camera video on Facebook that shows the bear sniffing around in the alley behind the restaurant. Then you see the bear stand up on its hind legs and push the trash bin out of view." -- 7News, August 1
By the way, the footage above has inspired a GIF currently making the rounds on social media. Check it out:
More from our News archive circa July 2011: "Hand-feeding Burger King food to bears? When it comes to stupidity, that's a Whopper!"