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Chat - Saturday, July 24th, 2010.; Have a great weekend Peeps!
Topic Started: Jul 24 2010, 05:21 AM (576 Views)
Artsy Mom
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Eagle Guardian
I see nobody else has put this up yet so here's another 'Bear" story rofl

Bear gets into car for peanut butter and jelly sandwich, honks horn, goes on short joyride

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Image from Ben Story

By Yesenia Robles
The Denver Post
Posted: 07/23/2010 09:43:31 PM PDT
Updated: 07/23/2010 09:46:11 PM PDT

Ralph Story doesn't hold anything against bears, even though one broke into his car early Friday morning in Larkspur, Colorado and totaled it.

"He was just looking for something to eat; that's what bears do," Story said. "Anyone who lives out here knows there's going to be wildlife here. We learn to live with it."

His 17-year-old son Ben, who usually drives the car, had left a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a deodorant in the car, which is probably what attracted the bear, according to officials who talked to Story.

Early in the morning a black bear opened an unlocked car door. After he got in, the door closed behind him, Story said.

The Storys believe that as the bear shuffled around the car looking for a way out, he bumped into the gear shift and put the automatic transmission into neutral, sending the car rolling 125 feet back down a hill. It hit a few trees before coming to a stop in some brush.

The 2008 Toyota Corolla is being called a total loss, Story said. The interior is ripped up, the dashboard was torn out, the windshield is broken, and the airbags went off, he said.

"It was a big bear, full grown. It took up both front seats in the car," Story said.

The insurance company will cover the damage.

The bear's joy ride started at approximately 2:30 a.m., when Story's neighbors began hearing strange noises from the home.

After hearing honking from a car for about 45 minutes, a neighbor decided to go see what the noise was.

"She thought we weren't here so she figured our teens were the ones making the racket," Story said.

As she got close she noticed something seemingly violent happening in a car, so she called the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, Story said.

A sergent and two deputies responded to the call that was supposed to be a check on a suspicious vehicle.

"The deputies were really surprised, they had thought it was maybe kids," said Michelle Rademacher, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.

"We got the call at about 4:15 a.m., it was one of those 'oh my God' calls," Story said.

Of the five family members in the house, only Story's wife Stacey, had heard some noises, but had ignored them, not knowing they were coming from their own car.

The bear was freed at about 5 a.m. when deputies used a long rope to open the car from a distance, allowing the bear to run off.

Story said the adventure will be a fond memory, and he plans to blow up and frame one of the pictures taken Friday morning.

"When you have teenage kids, it's kind of hard to get your whole family together," Story said. "Last night we were all out there laughing."

Moral of the story: Don't leave any food in your car in Bear country :ok: Are you paying attention Jamboree participants? :P
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Topa Topa Hikers
Eagle Guardian
Ozzie, I wanted to take the pup and the wedding dress. :P :D
I still do want the cute little puppy. My SIL called to say she is very excited
about the wedding. She had to add that Zoey is really not a happy camper right now.
Zoey is not liking being second to the new baby and is very bored.
DH said we would pick Zoey up after the wedding for her summer camp visit to Ojai. :P :D

Cheryl, Sorry to hear your FIL is upset.
We all felt terrible when my mother and father went into a nursing home.
Fortunately Florida has nice nursing homes for cheap. I think nursing homes
might be Florida's #1 employers, the homes are pleasant and all the staff
seem very well trained.
Our last trip to NYC we drove to Boston to visit DHs mother who is in a nursing home.
MIL is 90 years old this Sept.
Here is a photo of DH, Barry, and his mom, Bernice, on our walk. :)
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Topa Topa Hikers
Eagle Guardian
We just got back from Santa Barbara.
:clk: on the way home.

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Naturegal
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Cheryl - Sorry to hear of the problems your FIL is having which eventually the family has to deal with. It's a blessing that your MIL isn't complaining.

Your poor Mom, she is really lucky that she came out of it with just bruises, she could have broken a hip or worse. She sounds like such an independent woman who doesn't want to bother anyone or make her family worry about her. Bless her, and hope she recovers from the fall soon.

Topa
- Your MIL looks amazing for 90. Will she be able to travel to California for the wedding?

Deb - Wishing you and Gary a fantastic trip to camp and the Jamboree, I know how much fun you are going to have.........but watch out for Momma Bear :P
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Harpo516
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started to pack friend's car for drive to camp tomorrow (using my car at end of week to go to VA) well he backed into driveway and discovered his radiator has a crack in it- couldn't have discovered it yesterday when it could have been fixed :( so moved his car and loaded mine up!

so my car is going upstate and then all the way down to VA!

we're packed - sorted and now it's way past time to go to bed!

I'll try to check in if I can while at camp but that may not happen

keep the home fires burning - hoping the best for the eagles

everyone take care and be well... :}^
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Artsy Mom
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Update July 24, 2010 - 9:14 PM CDT

Relief about Jo


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Lynn changing Jo's GPS - July 24, 2010 ( cell phone image of BBC footage)

With Lily and Hope doing fine, we turned our attention to long-lost Jo. Two-year-old Jo has a calm personality like June's. Despite being the daughter of hyper-nervous RC (11) and the granddaughter of similarly nervous Shadow (20), Jo has turned out to be a sweetheart. We don't know why. We had very little contact with her until she was away from RC at 1 1/2 years of age. Initially she was slow to respond to our overtures. Then something clicked, and we found we could approach her in the woods, which is unusual even among bears we've known since they were cubs. Personalities differ.

Jo was good enough to let us put a radio-collar on her last summer. We tracked her to a den in a road culvert under a lightly used road. Vehicles rumbled over her, but she stayed.

Sometime over winter, she removed her radio-collar. We had an early spring. Meltwater forced her out of the den before we arrived. All we found was her empty radio-collar.

On May 8 this year, we spotted her and re-collared her - complete with a GPS unit. When the GPS batteries died a couple weeks later, we tried to home in on her telemetry signal. We saw her foraging a hundred yards away along a powerline. We said, "It's me, bear." She looked up and ran. We got side-tracked with Lily, Hope, and other members of the clan and hoped we would run into Jo to give her a new GPS unit.

Lately, we worried when a man in her territory said he heard two suspicious shots a couple weeks ago. Today, another man said his buddy hit a radio-collared bear with his truck a week ago Thursday. From the location, it could only be Jo. Our hearts sank. Jo has the personality to be a great research bear. She is totally trusting. We feared the worst. We sent the BBC crew out to find her radio-signal. They found her signal inactive and not far off the highway. The man who hit her said she ran into the side of his pickup and then ran back into the woods.

We joined the BBC crew and moved closer to her signal. To our relief the signal showed activity. Jo was alive. But how bad was she hurt? We tried to move closer. She moved away. Two of us continued more gently, saying the familiar "It's me, bear." The area was a wet, open alder swamp - the kind of habitat injured bears have used in the past. Movement and a dark spot caught our eye. We watched for more movement. Was it just a bird and a shadow? Another step, and the dark shape turned into an ear and a face. It was Jo, and she wasn't running away. A few minutes later, she decided to trust. We were relieved to see all four legs functioning. Then she came right over. We examined her all over and she never winced. We gave her a new GPS unit, thanked her, and walked away feeling light-hearted about Jo being okay. She has now survived being hit twice by vehicles. The first time she got some road rash on her forearm. This time she escaped unmarked.

While we were working to locate Jo, the growing group of teachers were advancing the education project, finding new material, trading new ideas, and getting organized. Their enthusiasm makes us optimistic about all that can come out of this emerging effort for classroom outreach.

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Back to Lily and Hope. They gave us a bit of anxiety today when we discovered they were over a mile apart between 10 and 11 AM. But we're beginning to relax and have faith that Hope will be okay no matter what. Today, our faith was confirmed. By this evening, Hope had tracked Lily down and rejoined her. Hope is learning her way around in the woods and has become an expert tracker. We think of her bounding through the forest, alert and ready to climb. We think about how she has grown and the confidence she is gaining in her abilities to make a living. We are amazed at her uncanny ability to find Lily. We believe they'll stick together most of the time and den together this fall. They’ll let us know if we're right.

Meanwhile, data are flowing in to the computer from 7 GPS units that members of the clan are carrying. Soon, we'll fly to locate Cal who traveled nearly to Duluth from his den in Canada. The bears continue to amaze and teach us after 44 years.

~Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
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