It was like a reverse version of the fairy tale “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”
But instead of a girl breaking into the three bears’ home, it was a bear that broke into a Western Pennsylvania nursing home.
WPXI reported that a juvenile black bear got into St. Andrew’s Village just after 11 p.m. on June 3.
“I was sitting there at our nurse’s station and I heard a big crash,” Charlene Elliott told WPXI. “I thought it was one of the aides that fell, I got up and I’d seen it was a bear coming down the hall towards me!”
Officials at the nursing home shared images of claw marks on a windowsill and a broken window.
The bear was in the home for about 15 minutes, even walking into some residents’ rooms, getting nose-to-nose with one person, Elliott said.
Elliott told the people living there, “Please do not move, touch him,” after realizing the bear “could have mauled him. I mean, one swipe.”
She said one woman wanted to feed the bear.
“She’s like ‘Well, go ahead and give it my sandwich!’ and I’m like, ‘No, we can’t do that!” Elliott told WPXI.
Eventually, the big bear was lured out of the nursing home by the promise of Rice Krispies Treats and a little encouragement, directing it toward the door with a walker.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission trapped the juvenile black bear using donuts and pastries as bait on Thursday morning. Game commission officials were going to relocate the animal.
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