Bear Barges Into Connecticut Bakery And Scarfs Up 60 Cupcakes

AVON, Conn. (AP) — A hungry black bear barged into the storage of a Connecticut bakery, scared a number of workers and helped itself to 60 cupcakes earlier than ambling away.

Staff at Style by Spellbound within the city of Avon have been loading muffins right into a van for supply on Wednesday when the bear confirmed up. There are between 1,000 and 1,200 black bears residing in Connecticut, the state environmental company says, with sightings final yr in 158 of the state’s 169 cities and cities.

Bakery proprietor Miriam Stephens wrote in an Instagram publish that she heard worker Maureen Williams “screaming bloody homicide” and yelling that there was a bear within the storage.

Williams instructed TV station WTNH that she shouted to scare the bear off nevertheless it retreated and got here again 3 times.

Williams mentioned the bear charged at her so she backed out of the storage and ran.

Surveillance video obtained by WTNH reveals bakery employees strolling across the facet of the enterprise to attempt to scare the bear, however then operating away after it scares them.

The video reveals the bear dragging a container of cupcakes from the storage into the parking zone. Stephens mentioned the bear ate 60 cupcakes.

A baker lastly acquired the bear to depart by honking a automobile horn, Williams mentioned.

The four-footed thief was gone by the point police and officers from the Connecticut Division of Vitality and Environmental Safety arrived.

Nobody was injured within the encounter — one in a sequence of troubling interactions between black bears and people in Connecticut.

A 74-year-old lady suffered bites to her legs and arms final month when she was attacked by a bear whereas strolling her canine in a Hartford suburb, the primary such assault this yr. There have been two assaults final yr, together with one in October the place a 10-year-old boy was mauled in a yard.

“The frequency and severity of bear-human interactions is rising,” DEEP spokesperson Paul Copleman mentioned Friday.

Statistics compiled by the division present that there have been a file 67 studies of bears getting into Connecticut properties in 2022. The earlier file was 45 in 2020.