Black Bear Breaks And Enters Florida Home For Some Easter Chocolate

We have all heard the fairy tale of Goldilocks and The Three Bears, where a young girl visits the house of a family of bears. That’s just a story, right? For one Estero, Florida family, the exact opposite happened. Instead of a young girl at their dinner table testing out the porridge, it was a bear that surprised them on Friday morning.

Caroline Tidwell was woken up on April 3 by what she thought was her husband getting ready for work. As she ventured throughout the house she came upon a Florida black bear testing out the Easter candy the family had purchased. The noise that woke her sounded like the blinds, but it was definitely not the blinds. Definitely not.

“It almost sounded like the Venetian blinds were off track, so it was like tick, tick, tick tick – and then we heard the furniture moving around.”

Tidwell describes the bear making “slobbering noises and bear noises.” At first she was worried that the black bear had attacked on of her cats. However, the cats were safely hidden away above the bear on top of the kitchen cabinets. Instead, the bear found some Easter chocolates that were just right for his hunger pangs.

The bear is estimated to weight between 300 and 400 pounds and Tidwell was close enough to touch him. Talk about frightening! Tidwell woke up her husband, and the commotion scared the bear away for a day.

The black bear venture back into the house on Saturday. This time Tidwell was armed with a pot and a kitchen utensil.

“We opened the window and just banged on the pot and said ‘go away bear’ and he went away.”

The bear made a pit stop at a neighbor’s house to rip off the screen on their back porch before moving on.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission warn that bear sightings this time of year are common. It is spring time and the bears are hungry.

Black bears may look cute but they are dangerous. Do not feed or attempt to pet a bear.

In a related Inquisitr report, a hairless sun bear was found and captured in Malaysia. The animal, which was first filmed in January, was obviously diseased and suffering. The viral video spurred rescuers into action and a search and rescue operation started. The sun bear was rescued and is now being treated for its illness.

What would you do if you woke up to a black bear in your home?

[Photo via wikimedia.commons.org]