Bear Breaks Into Store, Steals Pies and Candy
Bear breaks into store, steals pies and candy written by: Heidi McGuire Backpack Journalist posted by: Jeffrey Wolf Web Producer LOVELAND - After 36 years in business, the Colorado Cherry Company has never had much trouble to speak of. A very unusual suspect broke into a store in Loveland and made away with some pies and candy. It was a bear. 9NEWS at 6 p.m. October 24, 2006. "We had somebody put a rock through the window once, but we don't even know if that was intentional," said owner Kristi Lehnert. So when one of Lehnert's employees arrived at work last Thursday, she was shocked at what she found. The front door was damaged and the glass around back was shattered. It was clear someone or something had been inside. "It was definitely out of the ordinary," said Lehnert. She said cash register was on the floor and the freezer door was wide open and there were more clues outside. "Once the sheriff arrived and started taking some pictures he knew pretty quickly who exactly broke into our store," said Lehnert. It was a bear. Lehnert says there was about a $1,000 dollars in damage to the store, plus the three pies and chocolate covered peanuts that were gone. "We laughed hard, very, very hard, especially thinking of all the product I have in the store that he could have consumed," she said. When Lehnert called the Division of Wildlife and the organization said others had also complained of bears in the area. To protect the business Lehnert now has cans of ammonia around the property to stop the next bear in its tracks. The DOW says the ammonia is a deterrent to bears. "It could have been a lot worse, we could have had a real disaster," she said. http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=7d0247f5-0abe-421a-014d-8fa646e47569&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf