COLORADO -- A bear in Colorado Springs knew how to get the good stuff, he was caught on surveillance video dragging away a dumpster out of the camera’s sight and across the parking lot of a popular restaurant.
The bear was targeting the dumpster behind the Edelweiss Restaurant, a Colorado Springs landmark known for its German cuisine.
The restaurant’s owner said he set up the surveillance camera to catch vandals but got a totally different animal.
“I saw the dumpster dumped over and we pulled up the video and sure enough it is a bear. The big bear wanders over and just grabs hold of it and wheels it away,” said Edelweiss owner Deiter Schnakenberg.
The bear returned after the first night. That’s when the owner knew he had to do something.
“We are in a residential neighborhood,” said Schnakenberg.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers set up what they call negative reinforcements, boards with sharp objects poked through, to deter the bear before the wild animal becomes dangerous for people who live nearby.
“It is hopefully to provide negative reinforcement so we don’t have to come in and trap and relocate and potentially have to use something different,” said Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer Cory Chick.
Schnakenberg is also changing the restaurant’s dumpsters so the bear cannot easily roll them away and get inside.
(cbslocal - August 1, 2013)
