Bears going too far

The bear problem continues across the nation. Last week, among other ursine crimes, we saw a black bear in New Hampshire that broke into a house and swiped some fruit, although it had second thoughts about the teddy bear it tried to liberate. But a bear in Montana has taken the problem to a new level. Nearly three weeks of widespread break-ins climaxed in this brazen attack:

Red Lodge resident Marek Rosin said he awoke last Thursday at about 1:30 a.m. when the bear pushed open the door to his back porch and began raiding his chest freezer.

"He was about four feet from me with his head in the freezer munching on a pizza," Rosin said. "It was almost comical if it wouldn’t have been that close."

Rosin scared the bear off before it could do any damage, other than to the one "supreme" pizza.

This has got to be stopped! It's one thing stealing our produce and stuffed toys, but frozen pizza is a different issue entirely.



Shocking photo by Flickr user MNicoleM

More bad animal enablers in cat criminal conspiracy

As we've seen again and again on this blog, not only aren't animals punished for bad behavior, they're often rewarded for it. And here we go again:

When Oscar the cat was being fostered by a perfectly lovely couple in Portswood, England, you'd think he'd have been on his best behavior to increase his chances of finding a nice permanent home. Instead, he went on an astonishing spree of thievery:

Over the last three weeks Oscar has brought home dozens of socks, various ladies knickers, builder’s gloves, a knee-pad, a paint roller, rubber gloves and gardening gloves.

Earlier this week he brought home, one by one, ten pairs of children’s underpants.

At first Oscar brought home rather ragged items, but his foster family became concerned as he began to escalate to stealing nicer quality clothing and in particular women's underwear.

Worried about what the neighbors might think, they contacted the police. Exactly the right step to take, but did this lead to, say, an arrest? Was the cat sentenced to community service catching mice, even? Having had his crimes exposed, did he make any kind of restitution to his victims at all?

No! These cat-criminal-conspirators thought it was sufficient "to put their minds at rest that it’s only a cat pinching and not someone more unpleasant.” What's more, convinced that the items are meant as gifts, the couple has decided to reward the thief by giving him a permanent home:

Birgitt Weismantel, 56, who has been fostering Oscar from the Southampton Cats Protection charity since Christmas, said: “He brings them back as presents. We can’t give him back now as he makes such an effort with all these gifts... It was just so touching to see him come home every day with something for us."

Check out the original article at the Southern Daily Echo for video and the requisite "cat burglar" pun.

Car thief turns out to be a bear

There is nothing I can add to this headline, this photo, or this story from the Denver Post.

The car alarm was blaring, and there was a light moving around inside.

A couple in the Colorado Mountain Estates subdivision near Florissant thought someone was trying to steal their car early Wednesday.

When deputies from the Teller County Sheriff's Office responded at about 2:30 a.m., they discovered a young bear in the car.

The bear was as surprised to see the deputies as the deputies were to see the bear, said Mikel Baker, spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office.

One of the two deputies took some pictures of the bear, opened the car door, and the bear was gone in a flash, said Baker.

According to Baker and Teller County Sheriff Kevin Dougherty, this bear — like so many others — was very smart and had learned how to open car doors.

But as the bear rummaged around the car causing extensive damage, the door closed and it couldn't figure how to get out.

The light the couple saw moving in the car was the dome light of the vehicle, which momentarily wrapped around the bear's head, said Dougherty.

Baker said that bears are extremely hungry as they prepare for hibernation. No food should be left in a car, she said, as bruins, with their keen sense of smell, will detect the food and try to get inside.

In recent years, one bear practically destroyed a car after yogurt was left in it. Afterward, investigators found yogurt smeared throughout the car, said Baker.

Fox in sheep's stolen clothing

When we previously encountered a fox that stole a hundred shoes in Germany, there was no indication that it was the start of a trend, but might today's story show that foxes around the world have designs on all parts of our wardrobes?

Charlottesville Daily Progress - Charlottesville and University of Virginia police on Wednesday brought in trappers to catch a fox near Lambeth Field that acted oddly aggressive to passersby and bit two people.

“There were four calls to the Emergency Communications Center and at least two people reported being bitten by the fox,” said Ric Barrick, Charlottesville spokesman. “Another report said the fox was acting strangely and another said it took someone’s sweater.”

On the bright side, wildlife experts seized the opportunity to educate people about wildlife, including the following important points:

“People should let wildlife go its own way,” said Ed Clark, director of the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro. “There’s also no way to be sure that a fox that’s trapped in the area is the fox that was acting aggressive, unless it’s wearing the sweater.”

No report on why anyone was wearing or carrying a sweater on an August day in Charlottesville, VA, where another blog reported the temperature in the 90s, nor on whether the sweater was actually wool, so maybe I better check to see if my poetic license is up to date and would cover this post title.

Well-dressed Japanese foxes by Flickr user St Stev.

New Jersey bear beats up a man for his lunch, doesn't eat his veggies

AP, VERNON, N.J. – A northwestern New Jersey man said he was mugged in his driveway by a sandwich-craving bear. Henry Rouwendal said he was packing his car last Friday when he was hit from behind and knocked to the ground. He said the culprit was a black bear who took his Italian sandwich.

Rouwendal said he kicked the bear in the snout and throat.

He said the bruin made off with the bread, salami and other meats but left behind the lettuce, onions and tomatoes.

Coverage of the encounter in the NJ Star-Ledger goes into more dramatic detail:

Suddenly, Rouwendal said, something hit him from behind.

"It blind-sided me. I was on the ground and I was thinking, 'What the hell just hit me?'" said Rouwendal, who also suffered a large cut on his left temple and several deep bruises on his knee, elbow and buttocks.

Rouwendal said was knocked, face-first to the ground. When he rolled over, the bear was standing over him and then grabbed the sandwich.

"I kicked him three times in the snout and one time in the throat. I think the one in the throat got him," Rouwendal said, adding the bear started to run toward the rear of his home on Panorama Drive in the Lake Panorama section of Vernon.

Local wildlife officials - no surprise whose side they're on, I guess - make excuses for the poor hungry bear:

"At this point, it just doesn't seem we will label this as an attack on a person. ... He has no bruises, claw marks or scratches or even a ripped shirt that indicates it was a purposeful attack by the bear," said Lawrence Herrighty, deputy director of the DEP's Division of Fish and Wildlife.

Herrighty said it appears the bear went for the sandwich and not Rouwendal.

Photo of statue of bear asking more nicely for sandwich - really, a little politeness goes a long way, New Jersey bears - by Flickr user buelow.

Parrot purloins passport

And gets away Scot-free...

SOUTHLAND TIMES, NZ - Te Anau police have identified a thief who brazenly stole a British man's passport, but will not pursue an arrest or attempt to recover the document.

A police spokeswoman said a Scottish man reported the theft of his passport from a bus heading into Milford Sound earlier this week.

The passport had been in a coloured courier bag that attracted the attention of a cheeky kea when the bus stopped at the Chasm on the Milford road.

While the driver was in a compartment beneath the bus, the kea grabbed the package. When the driver turned back, the startled kea flew off into the bush with the package. It has not been recovered and considering the size of Fiordland, is unlikely to be.

The Scottish man, who did not want to be identified, said he had been waiting for about a month for the passport to be returned from Wellington.

"Being Scottish, I've got a sense of humour so I did take it with humour but obviously there is one side of me still raging," he said.

"My passport is somewhere out there in Fiordland. The kea's probably using it for fraudulent claims or something."

The kea parrot is a well known troublemaker in New Zealand, although it is usually noted for its taste for delicacies like the rubber parts of tourists' cars rather than their passports, as you can see in this video.

Photo of the perpetrator by bus passenger Yvonne Richarson.

Bad Birds, British Isles division

Foolish locals encourage junk-food eating, delinquent seagull

BBC NEWS - A seagull has turned shoplifter by wandering into a shop and helping itself to crisps.

The bird walks into the RS McColl newsagents in Aberdeen when the door is open and makes off with cheese Doritos.

The seagull, nicknamed Sam, has now become so popular that locals have started paying for his crisps.

Shop assistant Sriaram Nagarajan said: "Everyone is amazed by the seagull. For some reason he only takes that one particular kind of crisps."

The bird first swooped in Aberdeen's Castlegate earlier this month and made off with the 55p crisps, and is now a regular.

Once outside, the crisps are ripped open and the seagull is joined by other birds.

Mr Nagarajan said: "He's got it down to a fine art. He waits until there are no customers around and I'm standing behind the till, then he raids the place... He's becoming a bit of a celebrity. Seagulls are usually not that popular but Sam is a star because he's so funny."

If you don't believe it, watch the video.

(Photo from BBC.)