STRANGER IN THE NIGHT!
Hero dad shoots bear invading home at 2 a.m.
ACOLORADO man got the surprise of his life when a savage intruder broke into his house in the middle of the night — a massive black bear that threatened his family! Gutsy Steamboat Springs resident Ken Mauldin had no choice but to shoot the ferocious invader dead with a .40-caliber pistol.
“My only thought was protecting my family and putting that bear down,” says Mauldin.
Around 2 a.m., Mauldin’s wife, Kelly, heard their dogs barking and got up to investigate. She quickly found out why the hounds were howling — a 400-pound bruin had managed to open an unlocked door and was rummaging around the splitlevel home.
When Ken heard Kelly scream, “There’s a bear in the house,” he grabbed his semi-automatic handgun as the monster mounted the stairs.
“I shot it as soon as I could shoot it,” recalls the dad of three, whose kids were all at home in bed. “Then it charged me, and I kept shooting at it.”
After blasting the bear nine times, the animal crashed through a banister and fell in a bloody heap at the bottom of the staircase. By the time officials got to the scene, the critter was dead.
Says wildlife officer Justin Pollock, “I deal with bears a lot, and I’d say this was a big bear.”