No joke: Bear wanders into Alaska liquor store

A young bear wandered into a Liquor Barrel convenience store in the Lemon Creek neighborhood of Juneau on Thursday, KTOO reported. The animal likely was following its nose when it wandered into the store around 8:30 a.m. A clerk at the store posted a surveillance video on Juneau Bear Sightings, a Facebook page.

Bob Dilley, a community service officer supervisor with the Juneau Police Department, said a bear walking into a store is unusual.

“It’s fairly rare that they actually walk into a front door like that,” Dilley told KTOO. “It’s a matter of luck that they come by and the door’s open.

“That place probably had some food in there that smelled, so it wanted to check it out.”

Roger Thibodeau, the store clerk, told KTOO that from behind the counter, it looked like a dog was coming into the store. That is, until he saw the bear’s snout.

“I think that was the closest I’ve ever been to a bear,” Thibodeau told KTOO. “I was basically kind of stunned when I saw it.”

The clerk described the bear as a cinnamon-colored juvenile, about the size of an adult malamute dog. In the video, the bear walks in the open front door and stops in front of a candy rack before standing on its hind legs.

A customer who was pouring coffee began clapping his hands and shooed the bear out of the store, KTOO reported.