Three Bears Break Into Estes Park Pizza Shop
ESTES PARK, Colo. (CBS4) - A pizzeria owner blames a female black bear and her two cubs for damage to his kitchen overnight -- and has the surveillance video to prove it.
"It was really fun to come into that one," said co-owner Tony Francher about arriving to work Saturday morning.
Francher said the bears broke into a main window on the front of the business (and not the drive thru, as a co-worker mentioned in the business's Facebook post). They ate comparatively lightly, nabbing several trays of dough and a chunk of salami before exiting.
The three trespassers chose their diet wisely, according to notes about their feeding habits from the Colorado Parks & Wildlife. After August, black bears enter "hyperphagia" and seek high fat and high carbohydrate food in order to pack on pounds for hibernation through the winter.
"Many bears actively forage up to 20 hours per day during the fall feeding frenzy," writes the CPW.
"It's could've been worse," Francher said.
The company keep the majority of its materials in another room which the bears did not gain access to.
Restaurant personnel "tossed product, sanitized, re-stocked," and were open for business Saturday as scheduled at noon.
A few dough trays also had to be bent back into shape.
Francher expects the bears to try again.
"Cameras will be rolling, but they won't be able to get into anything," he said.
