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A Bear Walks Into A Bar In Estes Park...

ESTES PARK, Colo. (CBS4)- Bear sightings are becoming increasingly frequent this summer in mountain towns and along the front range. One bear actually walked into a bar in Estes Park recently and the patrons didn't really seem to mind.

It's believed the black bear started his evening dumpster diving.

"I guess nothing seemed palpable so he just kept going," said Estes Park resident Daniel Lyell. "He didn't think too long before he started walking into the bar."

The bear wandered into Lonigan's Bar located at 110 West Elkhorn Avenue in Estes Park with Lyell not far behind.

"I followed him back to these back doors," said Lyell.

Lyell snapped a photo of the bear walking through the bar while trying to warn the customers up front that a bear was walking towards them.

"I tried to holler, 'Bear!' so people could hear me. They were oblivious. He kept wandering up to the middle bar where all the patrons were," said Lyell.

The bear was caught on the bar's surveillance camera but the owner missed what he estimates to be his 6-foot, 300 pound customer.

"We are in the Rocky Mountains, it's their territory not ours," said Lonigan's owner David Callahan.

The bear didn't seem impressed with the bar and wandered out after a few moments.

The bartender is used to some burly drinkers but isn't sure how she would have reacted to this one, "My first reaction is to have a heart attack and my second reaction is to give him whatever he wants," said the bartender working that night.

No one is sure whether this is the same bear that broke into an Estes Park chocolate store last summer.

The bartenders at Lonigan's plan to offer special shots in honor of the thirsty bear.

bear-into-Lonigan's-bar
A black bear wandered into Lonigan's Bar in Estes Park and was captured on surveillance video (credit: Lonigan's Bar)
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