# Bait them into the kitchen



## gonefishn (Jan 28, 2010)

Anchorage police flushed a small black bear from a Hillside home Wednesday afternoon after the animal climbed through a kitchen window and rummaged through the garbage with the homeowners holed up in a bedroom.

Damage to the home was minimal, though the bear ripped out a screen to enter. Neither the bear nor the people were injured.
Homeowner said she was in a bedroom and her husband John was in the living room about 1 p.m. when she heard something rummaging around the kitchen. She thought it was her husband and went to find out what was happening.
"I walked through the bedroom door and this big, black, fuzzy rear end of a bear was there," she said.
The bear had slipped in through an open window just about a foot wide that was above the kitchen sink, pulled a garbage compactor out of the counter and began shuffling through its contents and those of a nearby cabinet, spreading trash over the kitchen floor.
Barbara called her husband to the bedroom, where they locked the door and called police.
"The dispatcher said, 'Stay there, keep the door closed and don't make any noise.' I said, 'Yes, ma'am,'
"I was armed but I don't want a mess in here if I don't have to," John said. "I don't want to have to kill him in the house. He made a hell of a mess as it was." 
Police officers tried to herd the animal out but it wasn't persuaded until they splashed it with a cup of water, the Lopetrones said. Once flushed out the door, the bear made for the window again but then scampered off toward a neighbor's property.
Damage was limited to the screen the bear forced its way through and some muddy paw prints, and the Lopetrones thought the incident was over. But less than three hours later, just before 4 p.m., the bear returned to the scene of the crime and began looking in the kitchen windows, which by then were closed.
The people again sealed themselves in the bedroom and called police, though the bear, unable to break in, left the area before officers arrived.

Police said the bear may be killed if it continues being a problem.


----------

