A Port Moody family is living in fear after a bear broke into a trailer, stuffed itself with cereal, chips and marshmallows, then returned the following night looking for more.
Lilian Paiement, who lives on Darney Bay at the top of April Road in PoMo, said her husband was also briefly trapped in the family car when the bear returned Monday night and she hopes conservation officers will investigate.
Bears have been spotted in the neighbourhood trying to get into the animal-resistant garbage bins in recent days but this was the closest encounter with a bear the family has experienced in 20 years of living in the area.
On Sunday morning, Paiements discovered their travel trailer had been broken into and ransacked by a bear, which managed to open a two-foot square window, break through the bug screen and climb in to open drawers where dry goods had been stored for an upcoming camping trip to Osoyoos.
Paiement said the bear must have been in the trailer for a long time because it ate boxes of cereal, several bags of chips and three bags of marshmallows, as well as drinking from juice boxes and munching down Kraft dinner, beef jerky and a can of Pringles potato chips. It also yanked out a utensil drawer so hard it broke one of the sliding rails.
"He got through everything," she said.
The bear returned Monday night, Paiement said, opened the car door and dragged out an empty cooler.
At about 11 p.m., her husband, Serge, went outside to check on a locked garbage bin that was knocked over when he noticed the car door had been left open and a cooler left on the ground - likely by the same bear. When he went back to pick up a camera that had been left on the seat, he saw the bear near the house so he got into the car and tried to scare it away by honking the horn.
Lilian added to the racket by banging on the front door but the bear didn't look concerned and slowly walked off the property to the neighbour's garage. Paiement is concerned the bear is now habituated to humans and human food, and could pose a danger to the neighbourhood.
"We were scared last night," she said. "We saw him and he's huge."
Although this is the first time a bear has tried to get into the trailer in the 14 years they've owned it, Paiement said she has learned her lesson and won't leave any food inside any more. She even moved the barbecue indoors.
This is the time of year when bears are looking for high-calorie food to get them through hibernation. Residents are urged to remove all potential attractants, including camping food, ripe fruit, garbage and bird seed. If you see a problem bear, call the conservation officer service at 1-877-952-7277.
TRAPPED ON BURKE
A bear causing problems at the foot of Burke Mountain has been trapped and removed from the area but a local official is concerned more nuisance bears will hang around if people keep feeding them.
"Feeding bears always results in them being habituated. It changes their behaviour. [The bear that was trapped] didn't think he was doing anything wrong," said Drake Stephens, Coquitlam's Bear Aware co-ordinator, who said he had reports of people feeding the bear when it was a cub last year.
A trap was set on Abby Lane off of Oxford Street north of David Avenue after reports that an 18-month-old bear was entering garages, eating garbage and causing other problems. It was picked up by conservation officers Friday but The Tri-City News was unable to confirm by press time Tuesday whether it had been relocated or destroyed.
Stephens said complaints about bears have been on the rise for the last several weeks as the bruins start loading up on high-calorie foods. But the problem bear on Abby Lane was probably responsible for most of the calls, he said.
