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Bear Breaks Into Trailer Home in Alaska

Posted on: Monday, 28 March 2005, 18:00 CST

JUNEAU, Alaska - Florentino Acosta has seen plenty of black bears around his neighborhood, but never inside his trailer home - until now. Acosta woke up in the living room as the bear was breaking in. Acosta had fallen asleep while watching television.

His son, Paul, was shouting, and the only thing standing between him and the bear was a wooden door that the animal soon forced open.

Paul Acosta said the bear was inside for 30 to 45 minutes Thursday night before it left. Most of the time it was moving between the two ends of the living room, where Acosta family members were chasing it back and forth.

The bear got out of the trailer a couple of minutes before police arrived. Florentino Acosta said he didn't call the police right away because he lost track of the telephone in the excitement.

The bear probably weighed 500 to 600 pounds, he said, although his son said it wasn't that big.

No one was hurt. Florentino Acosta said the bear raised some blood pressure, but he was lucky his son woke him up. His wife, Virginia, was shaking badly.

Laurie Dubish, who lives about four trailers away, said she heard the son calling for help around midnight. Bears, she said, "were in my yard last summer. I wouldn't let my kids out."

Police said the incident at the trailer was the second call of a reported bear-sighting this spring. Capt. Tom Porter said garbage didn't attract the bear to the trailer.

Acosta said the garbage was inside, secured and not touched. The only thing he can figure is that the family had fried fish for dinner and the smell must have lingered.

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Information from: Juneau Empire, http://www.juneauempire.com

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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