Connecticut

Bear helps itself to 60 cupcakes from Connecticut bakery, scares employees

Published

2 years ago

May 27, 2023

Bear helps itself to 60 cupcakes from Connecticut bakery, scares employees

Estimated read time: 2-3
minutes

AVON, Conn. — A hungry black bear barged into the garage of a Connecticut bakery, scared several employees and helped itself to 60 cupcakes before ambling away.

Workers at Taste by Spellbound in the town of Avon were loading cakes into a van for delivery on Wednesday when the bear showed up. There are between 1,000 and 1,200 black bears living in Connecticut, the state environmental agency says, with sightings last year in 158 of the state’s 169 towns and cities.

Bakery owner Miriam Stephens wrote in an Instagram post that she heard employee Maureen Williams “screaming bloody murder” and yelling that there was a bear in the garage.

Williams told TV station WTNH that she shouted to scare the bear off but it retreated and came back three times.

Williams said the bear charged at her so she backed out of the garage and ran.

Surveillance video obtained by WTNH shows bakery workers walking around the side of the business to try to scare the bear, but then running away after it scares them.

The video shows the bear dragging a container of cupcakes from the garage into the parking lot. Stephens said the bear ate 60 cupcakes.

A baker finally got the bear to leave by honking a car horn, Williams said.

The 4-footed thief was gone by the time police and officers from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection arrived.

No one was injured in the encounter — one in a series of troubling interactions between black bears and humans in Connecticut.

A 74-year-old woman suffered bites to her arms and legs last month when she was attacked by a bear while walking her dog in a Hartford suburb, the first such attack this year. There were two attacks last year, including one in October where a 10-year-old boy was mauled in a backyard.

“The frequency and severity of bear-human interactions is increasing,” Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokesman Paul Copleman said Friday.

Statistics compiled by the department show that there were a record 67 reports of bears entering Connecticut homes in 2022. The previous record was 45 in 2020.

On Friday, a bear cub wandered into a neighborhood near downtown Hartford and climbed up a tree. Local residents were delighted and surprised, saying it was highly unusual for bears to come into the city. Police, animal control officers and state environmental authorities responded, creating a scene for several hours.

Authorities eventually tranquilized the young bear and planned to relocate it. Its destination was not disclosed.

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Connecticut

Connecticut intelligence center monitors tips from app, potential threats

Published

8 hours ago

January 3, 2025

Press Room

Connecticut intelligence center monitors tips from app, potential threats

Following the recent events in New Orleans and Las Vegas, state officials say they are not aware of any current credible threat in Connecticut.

But they are constantly monitoring for any suspicious activity.

Following the deadly attack in New Orleans, we got an inside look at how the state works to help keep people safe.

Public safety deputy commissioner Brenda Bergeron gave us access to what’s known as the Connecticut Intelligence Center.

You can find information sharing here between different local, state, federal and private organizations for preventing and responding to possible threats.

“That is the real value of a hub because we can have something can come in on the desk or some other way through the suspicious activity reports or another way, it gets evaluated here,” Bergeron said.

Those suspicious activity reports might be coming from someone who downloads and uses the updated CT Safe Mobile app.

Recently there a surge in people alerting about drone activity.

“Sometimes it’s in response to something that may have just occurred but other times, it’s used exactly as designed. Somebody in their neighborhood noticed something out of the ordinary and wanted to report to us and give us a heads up that something didn’t seem right,” Bill Turner, State Emergency Management director, said.

Authorities say things to watch out for include someone who has an unusual interest in getting key details about security measures or watching them closely.

Also, discreetly using a camera to record.

And finally, trying to access rooftops or other potentially sensitive areas.

“Maybe it’s nothing at all, but maybe it’s something very significant, and there are people now who are trained to put all the pieces together to see if these red flags are an indication that something is about to happen,” Mike Lawlor, University of New Haven criminal justice professor, said.

If there is an emergency, you should still call 911.

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