The Province

B.C. couple kills black bear after break-in

Large invader entered retirees’ Fruitvale residence, coming face-to-face with frightened homeowners

- Harrison Mooney hmooney@postmedia.com

Rod Haines bought a shotgun. Living in rural Fruitvale with his wife Sandy, Haines felt it was a good idea to have some protection because bears often wander through his yard. But until this week, he’d never had a reason to fire the gun.

Then a black bear broke into his house.

Sandy Haines awoke to a thud at 3 a.m. Wednesday. She got up to investigat­e, thinking maybe there was an animal in the carport. She flicked the outdoor lights on to scare it away.

“Then I heard something coming up my stairs and I looked and it was a bear,” Haines told the Trail Daily Times. “It had popped our basement door open, I have no idea how, then walked up inside our house.”

The bear, which the retired couple described as bigger than average and healthy-looking, came face-to-face with Sandy near the couch. She screamed, waking her husband, who raced down from an upstairs bedroom to find his wife facing off with a black bear in the front room.

The couple tried to scare the ursine intruder out onto the patio but it raced back down into the basement, where it began to get worked up.

That’s when Haines decided he had little choice but to use the gun. He took the 12-gauge shotgun down to the basement and fired four rounds at the bear, killing it.

“Thank goodness my husband has a shotgun and he had to shoot it,” Sandy Haines said. “What else could you do?”

The Haines said they were surprised the bear would enter their home, as there are plenty of fruits and berries outside. But like humans, bears are often more attracted to trash than fruit. Sandy believes the bear was enticed by the smell of a bag of garbage in the basement.

“We had garbage out in our shed before and a bear popped open those doors. So that’s why we have one bag of garbage down in our basement,” Sandy said. “I assume that’s what it smelled.”

The Haines contacted the authoritie­s immediatel­y. RCMP came to the house to examine the scene, then conservati­on officers were called in to take the body away. After they took too long, however, the couple removed the bear’s carcass themselves with a winch.

They’ll also be taking steps to ensure they aren’t woken up by anymore late-night bear intrusions. When they replace their basement door, the only thing in the home that was damaged by the bear’s visit, Sandy said they’ll be upgrading the security.

“We’re getting deadbolts for our doors.”

 ??  ?? Sandy and Rod Haines say they’ll be upgrading their home security after a run-in with a black bear similar to the one pictured here. — AP FILES
Sandy and Rod Haines say they’ll be upgrading their home security after a run-in with a black bear similar to the one pictured here. — AP FILES

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