A bear stole jellybeans in British Columbia.
Eyewitnesses to the accident are shocked but unhurt.
The unconventional crime was witnessed by several people at a gas station near Cowichan Lake on Vancouver Island. Early in the morning, a black bear entered the store, walked past the counters, grabbed a bag of gummy bears and left the premises. The baribal killed his prey right there in the parking lot.
Jay and Karen deGoesbriand, owners of the tiny Tipton Gas Bar, said the candy, which the earlier visitor did not pay for, was worth CA$ 0.70. However, the couple took no offense to the thief. Karen was pleased, noting that the bear clearly has a sweet tooth.
Jay was behind the counter at the time of the incident, but he wasn't even scared. Bear encounters in British Columbia aren't exactly rare. In August, the province's Conservation Officer Service (COS) received 5,963 calls reporting baribal encounters. Fortunately, the animals have not shown any aggression toward humans, but experts are still concerned about the trend.
Local expert Len Butler links the bears' outings to human settlements to climate change:
"I think a lot of the areas, drought has impacted those berry crops and natural food sources, so where do the bears go? They unfortunately come into the urban areas, which always have a lot of non-natural attractants."
According to COS staff, there's nothing good about bears getting used to human food — once they do, it's harder for them to return to their natural habitat.
