Unstoppable 500-pound black bear keeps breaking into California homes!
South Lake Tahoe, California - Hank the Tank, a 500-pound black bear, has decided the neighborhood of Lake Tahoe is his very own personal convenience store. But despite the danger, residents don't want him euthanized.
As of Thursday, the giant bear burglar broke in to his 28th home.
Nicknamed Hank the Tank because of his bulldozing bulk, he has been stealing from the residents of South Lake Tahoe in California for the last seven months.
According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Hank the Tank has quite a rap sheet: 33 cases of excessive property damage, 102 individual reports of local police responses, and now 28 counts of forced entry.
The authorities have also been doing their best to dissuade the bear from using the neighborhood as it's fast food joint. Everything from paintballs, bean bags, sirens and Tasers have come into play, according to the New York Times.
And Hank is bigger than your average black bear. While the usual specimen weighs between 100 and 300 pounds, Hank comes in at a quarter of a ton!
The authorities even have the bear's DNA on file, according to the department of wildlife's website, so authorities can find out if it really was Hank the Tank that stole your lunch right out of the fridge and broke your window.
Residents want Hank stopped, but not killed
Last Thursday, officers responded to yet another one of Hank's break-ins. They banged on the wall of the home until the bear fled through the back door.
On its Facebook page, the South Lake Tahoe Police Department noted that Hank apparently has finer taste than garbage: "This bear did not break into a garage where trash was kept that he was sniffing out. He broke into a secured home, through the small window in the photo, and somehow squeezed inside. "
Authorities also posted a picture of the window, and it does look like it was a tight fit for the bulky beast.
Attempts to catch the neighborhood menace continue, but what will happen to him after he is detained is unclear. At the moment, here are no placement options available for Hank that fit the California Department of Fish and Wildlife requirements. Wildlife authorities are considering euthanasia as an option. Peter Tira, the spokesperson for the department, called the situation "potentially dangerous."
But, as the NY Times reported, residents of the area don't want Hank killed, they just want him to stop shambling in their homes and causing damage. Wildlife authorities even removed a bear trap from the area after someone wrote "bear killer" in spray paint on it.
Hank is what wildlife authorities refer to as "severely food-habituated" which means that the bear isn't scared of people and associates them with access to food. "It’s easier to find leftover pizza than to go in the forest," Tira noted.
Hopefully, Hank's life of crime is over, and he will start working on his beach body by scrounging for berries instead of pies.
Cover photo: screenshot/Facebook South Lake Tahoe Police Department