Black Bear Cub Goes Grocery Shopping

Dozens of shoppers at Ketchikan's Tatsuda's IGA grocery store got a surprise when a black bear cub walked into the stores front entrance and proceeded to climb on top of the produce last Saturday.

Tools

By KTVA CBS 11 News

Story Created: Oct 18, 2011 at 10:40 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Oct 19, 2011 at 11:39 AM AKDT

So, a bear walks into a local grocery store… and, no it’s not the start of a bad joke.

A black bear cub ambled into Tatsuda's IGA grocery store in Ketchikan, Alaska, Saturday while dozens of people were inside shopping.

When a call came over the intercom that there was a bear in the produce section, what many thought was a joke turned out to be an actual cub climbing on top of the produce.

The peculiar sight quickly drew a small crowd.

The meat department manager says it was sheer luck that he was able to capture the event on his video camera.

“He jumped, he just hopped right up there actually trying to get away, get somewhere high and that’s why he just kind of ransacked it. Then we had to take everything out of there and sanitize the whole case,” said Joseph Stollar.

The bear cub was eventually captured by an off-duty firefighter and released back in the wild.

The whole episode lasted only eight minutes, while cleaning the mess the baby bear left behind took eight hours.

Several thousands of dollars worth of damaged produce was donated to a livestock owner.

You have indicated this comment should be removed.

Close

The comment has been submitted for review. Thank you .

G,R, HALL said on Wednesday, Oct 19 at 10:32 AM

Such a tiny very young little cub with not a mother bear..who it was said was simply trying to hide from people. There is no doubt there are to many moose..bears in urban Anchorage..one has to wonder was Alaska really better when the population became so populated and urban as in Anchorage of today..is the decesion to kill all of the wolf species actually over done as to a natural balance of nature situation? No doubt added population numbers do add some good things..but as Alaksa really claim to fame has been the natural nature situations..just a question only.

75557948
Inappropriate? Alert Us!

Anonymous said on Wednesday, Oct 19 at 10:49 AM

I hope it found it's mama

75558877
Inappropriate? Alert Us!

Phil said on Wednesday, Oct 19 at 10:51 AM

It's a shame. I hate to think what is going to happen to him now.

75558974
Inappropriate? Alert Us!

Add a comment

Name:

Comment: 1000 Characters Left

KTVA CBS 11 | Anchorage, Alaska News and Weather and its affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although we have no duty to do so or to monitor any Public Forum.
This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.