A three-legged bear recently startled a Florida family when it walked onto their property, peered into their fridge and popped open some cool ones.
The cavalier black bear is known as “Tripod” in the Lake Mary community in which he’s recently been spotted roaming, according to NBC affiliate WESH 2. Most recently, he was seen by the Diglio family — who are local to the area — on their security camera on Aug. 3.
“Oh my God. I’ve never been this close to a bear,” 13-year-old Joseph Diglio is heard saying in the video he captured on his own. The video shows the bear prowling around the Diglio family’s enclosed patio and clattering over a few items as he makes his rounds.
Though he tore a hole in the family’s porch screen, Josaury Faneite-Diglio, Joseph’s mother, says he didn’t stop there.
“He ate the fish food we had outside next to our fish tank and then proceeded to the bar,” Faneite-Diglio explained. “He took three White Claws, drank, and left very happy. His favorite flavor is mango and strawberry.”
White Claws are an alcoholic seltzer water beverage that have fruit flavors.
Initially amazed by the scene, Joseph became concerned when he realized the bear could open doors.
“Once I saw him open the fridge, I got scared that he could open the doors to like the houses,” he said, eventually locking the doors around the house.
Meanwhile, Faneite-Diglio says she wasn’t quite so alarmed.
“I was not scared because we know the bear really well. He lives here; we respect their habitat as much as we can,” she explained.
They are no Winnie the Poohs on the hunt for honey, but bears have been known to help themselves to the contents of family kitchens in the past.
In August 2022, a man from West Hartford, Connecticut, came across a black bear inside of his kitchen. After welcoming himself to a bag of marshmallows and being shooed away, the bear returned days later and knocked through a screen door, perhaps hoping for more.
The man eventually called the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection who set up a humane trap with donuts for bait.
