Black Bear Heads for Beer Cooler
Spoiler alert “no it did not drink any beer.” Thanks to CC for this story.
Bear chilled in Wisconsin beer cooler
www.digitaljournal.com | October 21, 2009 | By Stephanie Dearing.
This ‘shopper’ is getting nods of approval from beer-lovers for choosing to spend time in a beer cooler. A Marketplace Foods grocery store in Hayward Wisconsin hosted the unexpected guest last week.
The human shoppers were a little less than impressed with this black bear, however. The bear, weighing approximately 125 pounds, gained entrance to the store and frightened shoppers when it wandered through the aisles, heading straight for the beer cooler on October 15th. While shoppers and store employees evacuated the store, the bear climbed up about ten feet to a shelf in the cooler, where it hung out for an hour. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources came after being called, tranquilized the bear and removed it. Store manager, Jon LeBlanc, said the bear did not break one single bottle of beer.
Reportedly a yearling, the bear had spent time earlier that evening perched in a Spruce tree in the center of the town. While shoppers at the Marketplace Foods grocery store were alarmed, the story has been amusing people since word of the bear’s antics have spread.
The black bear is the second largest animal in Wisconsin, while the re-introduced elk is the largest. Wisconsin allows bear hunting.
Hayward is a picturesque town in northwestern Wisconsin with a population of just over 2,000.
There was no explanation provided as to why the bear was attracted to the beer cooler.