Ring Camera Catches Bear Breaking Into Woman's Home, Eating $600 Worth of Frozen Meat

A Ring doorbell has captured the moment a bear broke into a woman's home and helped himself to hundreds of dollars worth of frozen meat from her freezer.

Amy Franklin, from Colorado, posted the video of the bear enjoying the contents of her garage freezer to Facebook, writing: "I forgot to shut the garage door. Won't make that mistake again.

"He was here for an hour and a half... the videos are amusing."

She told Nexstar Media Wire that the garage was a bit of a mess the next day. In total, the ursine invader consumed over $600 of meat.

The bear was caught on Franklin's Ring camera just before midnight local time. Footage from inside her garage shows the bear opening the freezer door and chowing down on the food inside.

Franklin said the bear "made out like a bandit" before going on his way.

This visit to Franklin's home took place in October. The following month another bear came to visit, with Franklin posting a video of that encounter as well. "This guy has it out for me," she wrote. "Good thing we heard him. Jake scared him off right before he jumped into the back of the truck."

There are an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 black bears living in Colorado. Bears enter a state of pre-hibernation in fall known as hyperphagia. At this time they need to consume up to 20,000 calories per day and encounters can increase as a result.

In 2020, there were almost 5,000 reports of bears in the state, with a third of these being related to trash. Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) said it euthanized 120 bears in 2020. Trash and bird feeders tend to be the first way bears associate with people and they serve as the first step in a bear being habituated, the CPW said.

"After learning this house or neighborhood has easy calories available to them in those forms, the next place they may look to for more is in an open garage, or pet food on your deck, or even break into your car for a treat it can smell," it said. "Breaking into a home is the leading cause of bears being put down."

Fatal bear attacks are rare in Colorado. In May a 39-year-old woman from Durango was found dead after a suspected bear attack. She is thought to have gone walking with her dogs before returning to her home. Her boyfriend arrived at 8.30 p.m. local time and found the dogs outside. The woman's body was later found with signs of consumption. A female bear and her cubs were found nearby and euthanized.