Bear seen on video ransacking California grocery stores is now roaming the wild again

Instead of foraging in the wild for food, a black bear in Lake Tahoe, California, went where humans go for a meal: the grocery store.

The “Safeway Bear” was seen on video multiple times entering local businesses looking for food, McClatchy News reported.

But now the bear has been caught — and returned back into nature, according the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Fish and Wildlife officials said the bear is 16 to 18 years old and weighs around 500 pounds, SFGate reported. Due to the bear’s advanced age, placement at a zoo or other wildlife facility was almost impossible because older bears who have spent their lives in the wild are unlikely to acclimate.

Instead, the bear was returned to the wild with a GPS tracking device so the department can still keep tabs on its whereabouts, according to the publication.

But Anne Bryant, executive director of the advocacy group BEAR League, told CBS Sacramento that she fears for the bear’s safety.

“I think this was not good for the bear,” Bryant told the TV station. “If he was taken to another bear’s habitat, that other bear is going to be territorial. This bear is compromised. It’s crippled. He’s crippled.”

The bear was first filmed walking into a Safeway in Kings Beach on Aug. 18, KUTV reported. The same bear struck again on Aug. 27 when it returned to the grocery store, McClatchy News reported.

It was also spotted at a Chevron gas station, where store cameras filmed it eating candy while lying down, according to CBS Sacramento.

Employee Paul Heigh, whom the bear lunged at on camera, told CBS the encounter was “not in the job description. No, not at all.”

This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 8:03 AM with the headline "Bear seen on video ransacking California grocery stores is now roaming the wild again."