Black bear pays late-night visit to office supply store in Pincher Creek

When Patti Mackenzie showed up at work last Friday morning, she found a big hole in her store's front window and a Mountie standing inside, waiting for her.

Mackenzie works at Pincher Office Products on Main Street in Pincher Creek.

"When I came to work at 7 in the morning, the alarm was going off, but that's not unusual. So I came in and shut it off. And I turned around and Const. Dennis was standing by a hole in the window, saying, 'Well, there you are.' And I'm like, 'Yeah, what are you doing there?'" she said.

Const. Val Dennis of the Pincher Creek RCMP was there to protect the store until staff arrived. The break-in had occurred early in the morning, and RCMP members had been standing watch ever since. They weren't sure what happened to the window, but they were pretty sure the store hadn't been burgled.

"What I understand is the alarm went off about 1:30 or 2 in the morning, and a couple of police officers attended and found the hole in the window. They cleared the store. There was nothing in the store. Nothing taken. Nothing broken, except the window," Const. Dennis told CBC News.

"I was the officer coming on duty early in the morning. I came in early just to maintain security until we had somebody show up to take care of the store."

When Mackenzie arrived, they cleaned up the glass and boarded up the window.

It wasn't until the following day, when store owner Christine Lank returned to town, that the nature of the intruder was discovered.

Lank and Mackenzie looked at the footage from the store's video cameras. That's when they saw their intruder had been a large black bear.

Mackenzie says it didn't appear the bear intended to break in and thinks the animal might have been spooked.

"He was looking in the front door and he wasn't doing anything wrong, just having a little look. And then, all of a sudden there's these bright lights. It had to have been a vehicle. The next thing you know, on the cameras you just happen to catch the bear's butt, running up the aisle in the store," she said.

"Then he came to the back of the store. He went to our back door and he looked out the window there. Then he just strolled on down the next aisle. He wasn't rushing, he was just having a little look around. And then he must have went back out the hole. Thank heavens."

A few minutes later, the camera picked the bear up across the street, heading east.

"He did not disrupt a thing, besides the window," said Mackenzie.

She thinks a passing car must have turned the window into a mirror and the bear charged its own reflection, right through the double-paned window.

Const. Dennis said he isn't aware of any other bear sightings in town this year, but they aren't unheard of.

"We did have a bear hanging around here last year, but I thought the game wardens dealt with it. I know they trapped it, but often they come back," he said.

"It's probably been hanging around town, or not too far from town, for some time and got quite used to people."

As far as Const. Dennis knows, this is the only store in Pincher Creek that this bear has broken into. And he doesn't believe it was intentional. "There was nothing in there for a bear to want."

"I believe something spooked the bear and it bolted and ran through the window."