Black bear pays overnight visit to Pincher Creek store

PINCHER CREEK Who knew that a black bear would be in the market for some office supplies?

Definitely not Patti Mackenzie and other staff at Pincher Office Products, who were greeted to a large, mysterious hole in the window of their Pincher Creek store on the morning of April 26.

Mackenzie arrived to an alarm going off around 7 a.m. that morning, which in itself was not too unusual, she said.

“I came in and I shut it off, and

I could hear voices. I thought, `I didn't leave the radio on.'”

She peered through to find Const. Val Dennis of the Pincher Creek RCMP, who had been there since earlier in the morning.

“He came through the window to talk to me, and he said, `We have no idea what has done this, there's no rock, there's no fur, there's no blood, no tire track,'” Mackenzie said.

With nothing to indicate how it happened, she called someone to come board up the window and went about her day.

Christine Lank, owner of the store, returned days later. She and Mackenzie reviewed security footage, and that's when they found out.

“It was actually unbelievable — `you're like no way. Wait a minute ... what?'” said Mackenzie.

“Here's a bear walking in front of the door outside, he's just strolling ... nothing serious.”

Then there was a flash of bright lights in the video ( but no sign of a car), which apparently startled the bear.

“He came through the window, and he came flying up the aisle, but he had calmed down,” said Mackenzie.

The bear perused the aisles of the store, eventually leaving out the window where he had leapt in.

“Besides the broken window, he never touched a thing,” she said. “I think he just followed his nose and it got him into a little bit of trouble.”

Mackenzie said she's glad nobody was there when it happened, because who knows what the bear may have done. She said they haven't had encounters like this before.

“It's just unusual that he even was in town.”