Black bear takes 60 cupcakes from US bakery, scaring staff

A bare achromatic carnivore barged into the store of a Connecticut bakery, frightened respective employees and helped itself to 60 cupcakes earlier ambling away.

Workers astatine Taste by Spellbound successful the municipality of Avon were loading cakes into a van for transportation connected Wednesday erstwhile the carnivore showed up. There are 1,000 to 1,200 achromatic bears surviving successful Connecticut, the authorities biology bureau says, with sightings past twelvemonth successful 158 of the state’s 169 towns and cities.

The bakery’s owner, Miriam Stephens, wrote successful an Instagram station that she heard worker Maureen Williams “screaming bloody murder” and yelling that determination was a carnivore successful the garage.

Williams told TV presumption WTNH that she shouted to scare the carnivore disconnected but it retreated and came backmost 3 times.

Williams said the carnivore charged astatine her truthful she backed retired of the store and ran.

Surveillance video obtained by WTNH shows bakery workers walking astir the broadside of the concern to effort to scare the bear, but past moving distant aft it scares them.

The video shows the carnivore dragging a instrumentality of cupcakes from the store into the parking lot. Stephens said the carnivore ate 60 cupcakes.

A baker yet got the carnivore to permission by honking a car horn, Williams said.

The four-footed thief was gone by the clip constabulary and officers from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (Deep) arrived.

No 1 was injured successful the brushwood – 1 successful a bid of caller troubling interactions betwixt achromatic bears and humans successful Connecticut.

A 74-year-old pistillate suffered bites to her arms and legs past period erstwhile she was attacked by a carnivore portion walking her canine successful a suburb of Hartford, the authorities superior – the archetypal specified onslaught this year. There were 2 attacks past year, including 1 successful October wherever a 10-year-old lad was mauled successful a backmost yard.

“The frequence and severity of bear-human interactions is increasing,” Deep spokesperson Paul Copleman said connected Friday.

Statistics compiled by the section amusement determination were a grounds 67 reports of bears entering Connecticut homes successful 2022. The erstwhile grounds was 45 successful 2020.