A bear walked into an ice cream parlour. The strawberry never had a chance

Deputies from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office found a bear, whom they nicknamed Fuzzy, behind the counter of an ice cream parlour at the Camp Richardson resort in South Lake Tahoe, California. Photo / El Dorado County Sheriff's Office via The New York Times

The black bear, which the authorities named Fuzzy, caused little damage but cleaned out much of the inventory at a popular parlour on south shore of Lake Tahoe.

Early Sunday, hours before the first waffle cone of the day was topped with a scoop at an ice cream parlour near the south shore of Lake Tahoe in California, a security guard heard a noise.

At first, he thought it was coming from a dumpster behind the parlour at Camp Richardson, a 128-acre resort in South Lake Tahoe. But when he aimed his flashlight in the container, it was empty.

Then, as he circled the building in search of the source of the noise, he lifted the beam toward the front window and saw a large black bear staring back at him. The bear was standing behind the counter next to the cash register, as if he were an employee waiting to serve a customer.

At 4.11am, the guard called the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies arrived to find the bear behind the counter in the middle of a taste test.

The bear had slipped through the front door and gone straight for the ice cream, authorities said. The ice cream parlour at Camp Richardson, about 60 miles south of Reno, Nevada, offers 20 flavours and 13 toppings.

They have the classics, of course: vanilla bean, chocolate and strawberry. For the more adventurous, there’s coconut pineapple and strawberry cheesecake. Even green tea.

The bear, which the sheriff’s office nicknamed Fuzzy, sampled as many flavours as it could get its paws on, authorities said.

Tubs lay overturned, ice cream half eaten, authorities said. Paw prints stretched across the black-and-white floor like stick stamps.

The deputies startled the bear, which stopped eating but could not find the exit. They shouted and shone their lights. Finally, the animal lumbered through the front door and back into the dark, authorities said. The deputies followed to shoo it away from nearby buildings and into the forest.

The shop itself suffered little damage. The bear “caused barely any property damage, and there was barely any cleanup,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a post on Facebook, accompanied by images of the bear behind the counter.

Camp Richardson’s ice cream parlour is a favourite summer stop, often with a long line of vacationers extending out the door. After the bear’s visit, stools and napkin dispensers stood undisturbed. Only the ice cream was lost, every tub tossed before another summer day could begin.

“We’re pretty sure he didn’t wash his claws before he came in, so all the ice cream had to be replaced,” said William Boas, vice president of operations for ExplorUS, which operates the Camp Richardson Resort.

The parlour reopened later that day after employees finished a deep cleaning.

While this one stood out because of its setting, encounters with bears are not uncommon in the Tahoe Basin, which is home to one of the country’s densest black bear populations. In the past two years, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office has responded to nearly 650 bear-related calls: cars broken into, doors pried open, kitchens raided.

Sergeant Kyle Parker, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, recalled an incident from 2018 in which a black bear entered a car through an unlocked door in search of food and left through the back windshield after it found itself trapped there.

There are about 500 black bears in the Tahoe Basin and around 60,000 in California, according to Peter Tira, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Tira said residents and visitors should never feed bears, always give a bear an avenue for escape, and avoid getting between a mother bear and her cubs.

“I would not say to ‘stand your ground’ if a bear approaches,” Tira said. “Make yourself look big, make loud noises and continue to back away.”

Alexia Ronning, a Tahoe Basin bear specialist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said that, over time, black bears in the area have become addicted to human food because it’s easier to come by. Why root for berries or grubs when there is pizza or ice cream to be had?

As for Fuzzy, which flavour did he appear to enjoy the most?

Strawberry, it seems, according to Parker, the sheriff’s office spokesperson.

“He ate the most of that one,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Mark Walker

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