Apparently, bears don't worry much about showing their IDs when shopping for beer.
A bear cub wandered into a downtown Hayward grocery and liquor store Thursday night and cozied up on a shelf above a stock of Hamm's beer. Officials later tranquilized and removed the cub, which had walked through the front door of Marketplace Foods & Liquor Depot on South Main Street.
"The standing joke up here was that it was the 'Hamm's bear,' " store manager JonLeBlanc said Friday, explaining that Hamm's beer used to use a cartooned bear in its commercials. "We like to say the Hamm's bear returned to the beer."
There were about 35 people in the store when the bear wandered through the front doors between 8 and 9 p.m., according to LeBlanc and another witness.
Tino Becker, a German foreign exchange student attending Barron High School, which, of course, has the nickname Golden Bears, said he was leaving a KFC restaurant in Hayward when he saw the bear run across the street and go into the market.
"It at first ran into the door, but then (the door) opened, and then it went inside," Becker, 16, said Friday. "It seemed really scared."
Becker said he and a group of his soccer teammates called the police before following the bear into the store.
"We were excited, and we just wanted to see what it was going to do in there," he said.
However, a police officer told him and his friends to leave before they could catch a glimpse of the animal, Becker said.
The bear wandered through the store's liquor department and into the beer cooler, where it sat down atop a shelf above a stock of Hamm's.
Law enforcement officers responded to the situation, and an employee from the nearby Wilderness Walk Zoo and Recreation Park, about three miles south of Hayward, came with a tranquilizer gun, LeBlanc said.
After tranquilizing the bear, officials took it outside and turned it over to the state Department of Natural Resources. The bear had been in the store about 75 minutes, he said.
The bear weighed about 125 pounds, stood about 5 feet tall on its back legs and was estimated to be about 1 1/2 years old, LeBlanc said.
"It was more curious than anything," he said.
Bennett can be reached at 833-9203 or 800-236-7077.
mrh65
I don't know if you had some problems as a kid "Crankyoldguy", but work that out with your parents on your own time. What the owner should've done is just shot the bear right there and fed his family with the unexpected fortune. Simple!
CrankyOldGuy
Well said PropertyCrimeVictim! I think we can assume this young bear was wandering the streets of Hayward because his single mom can't keep a handle on him. Where was his father? It all goes back to parental responsibility. If that bear needed to be placed back in "the wild" let his parents take care of that. If Eau Claire had a mayor this kind of thing wouldn't be happening up north.
PropertyCrimeVictim
Hey, this is nothing but socialism! Big government, establishing a public safety entity (police) with tax dollars. Glad the bear was humanely removed, but really, this should be up to the private sector to handle. Let the private sector compete for the opportunity to remove bears from commercial establishments-- whomever does it the cheapest should get the job. And why are my tax dollars being used to fund the removal of this bear? Let the owner of the store pay for the removal himself . Taxpayer-funded cops are nothing but a form of mandated big-government insurance.
mrh65
I could definately use a beer right about now too! These people are so freaking stupid
mrh65
wow, you are a cranky old guy. I'm surprised you are though because with an attitude like that I'd think someone would've assasinated you by now
CrankyOldGuy
I hope no taxpayer money was used to relocate this bear. If so, the bear should have to work to pay it back. He could wrestle at a circus or something.
BlondeDeb
Poor thing was probably scared half to death. Glad no one was hurt and the worst that happened was that a lot of people walked away with a good story to tell.