A Connecticut woman said a bear sighting on her home security camera made for a "hysterical" afternoon after it was filmed stealing an Amazon package from her front porch.
"I knew nothing in there was going to be irreplaceable," Kristin Levine told NBC Connecticut.
“Amazon had dropped off the packages maybe five minutes before and I got the alert on my security camera and then I got a second alert five minutes later and I was like taken aback because I wasn’t expecting anyone else in my driveway," she continued.
The package's contents: toilet paper, Levine said. And she found the package in a neighbor's yard shortly after the bear thief made off with it.
In the clip, the bear can be seen holding the Amazon box in its mouth as it slowly ambles away from Levine's Bristol, Connecticut home.
Its ears are tagged, meaning it has encountered state wildlife officials.
By the 1800s, bears were largely eradicated from the state, which then had few forests and many farms.
But black bear sightings have become increasingly common across the Constitution State, which the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection attributes to a "healthy and increasing" bear population.
Connecticut has recorded over 6,000 bear sightings in 2021. In some small towns in the state's northern Litchfield and Hartford counties, there have been hundreds of black bear sightings this year alone.
"Many homes are in or near bear habitat," the Connecticut environmental protection department said on its website. "Bears spend time in neighborhoods because food sources are abundant and easy to access"
To reduce the presence of bears near homes, the department recommends removing things that are attractive to bears: bird seeds, meats and fruits in open in compost, and easily accessible trash cans full of food scraps.
"Much of Connecticut’s landscape is now forested and is suitable for black bears," the department noted on a black bear fact sheet.
"The rapid increase in the bear population between the 1980s and early 2000s is expected to continue. As the bear population expands, interactions between humans and bears will increase. People should learn what to do if they see a bear and how to avoid unnecessary conflicts by keeping food away from bears."
