- Who doesn’t love a good bear story?
Bears are complex creatures. Depending on the individual bear, the time of day, and the position of the stars, they can go from raging monsters to silly furballs of the forest.
Over the years, we at Oddee have encountered a lot of bear-related stories. Sadly, not all of them have enough substance for a dedicated Odd News article.
But that doesn’t mean they’re not stories worth telling — and that’s what we’ll do. Here are six strange stories about bears from the depths of our archives.
1) Yoga Bear
Running into an unexpected bear is already shocking, but imagine what it’s like when a bear sneaks up on you. That’s what happened Kristen Jones from Nevada.
In 2016, Jones was having a relaxing spring morning. She had gone down to the lake to relax and do some yoga while watching the sunrise.
As she exercised with earbuds on, she suddenly felt something sniffing and licking her neck. She reached back to pet the surprise visitor, assuming it was her neighbor’s dog.
Nope. It was a black bear.
Startled, Jones backed off — right into the lake. Luckily, the bear was just as surprised and moseyed off without causing further problems.
Bet that ruined her moment of relaxation, though.
2) The Bear in a Hot Tub
Every kid loves to play in a pool — even if they’re bears. One California cabin owner recently found that out.
Joie Rushing owns a nice cabin in Forest Falls. On August 25, her security camera caught an unexpected visitor attempting to get into a hot tub on the cabin’s deck.
Her surveillance system captured a young bear expertly prying open the hot tub’s cover by first grabbing it with its teeth and then lifting it. The bear slipped into the hot tub, splashing around in the warm water for a few minutes.
Soon, however, it moved to the more kid-friendly inflatable pool that was also on the deck. Unfortunately, the bear’s claws punctured the pool, and the sound of the water rushing out drove the intruder back into the woods.
3) Honking Bear Cubs
Jeff Stokely from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, works for a security systems company. He’s familiar with the sounds of various alarms, but on October 4, 2019, it took him 20 minutes to realize someone was honking his van’s horn.
As he rushed to see who was messing with his vehicle, Stokely found two bear cubs — locked inside his car.
The cubs had apparently managed to open the driver’s door and climb in. As they rummaged about the cabin, they managed to lock the door.
Trapped, the cubs panicked and began honking the car’s horn, alerting Stokely. In the end, he opened the van’s back door and retreated to safety to wait for the cubs to clamber out of the van and back to the forest.
4) The Bear and the Boxer
On July 3, 2016, then 61-year-old Rick Nelson ran into an unpleasant surprise while walking his dog. A bear cub stuck its head out of a bush right by the footpath and let out a loud yelp — calling its mother for help.
And sure enough, Mama Bear came careening out of the bushes to defend her offspring. But what the bear didn’t know is that as a seasoned boxer, Nelson is quite tasty with his fists.
As the bear swung at Nelson, he hit back and punched the bear right in the teeth. She didn’t like that and raked its claws across Nelson’s chest and face.
That move, however, put the bear in a perfect position for a counterattack. With an underhand jab, Nelson drove his fist into the bear’s snout.
Now bleeding from the nose, Mama Bear threw in the towel and retreated to the bushes with her cub. Nelson’s injuries needed a visit to the hospital, but fortunately, he got off no worse for wear.
5) The Showering Bear
In 2002, Susan Linzmeier heard someone enter her home. We can only imagine her shock when she found a bear had walked in through the door.
Luckily, the bear only wanted a nice, hot shower. It waddled right into the Linzmeiers’ bathroom, turned on the water, and sat down to enjoy its wash.
Oh, and it also took a drink from the toilet when it got thirsty.
Having finished its shower, the bear wiped its face on Linzmeier’s husband’s bathrobe. But when it started eyeing the baked good Linzmeier had just pulled out of the oven, she decided the uninvited guest was making itself too much at home.
Hollering at the bear, Linzmeier let the animal know that somebody was home. Surprised, the bear slipped out the door, snackless but clean.
6) Cocaine Bear
Finally, we have the Cocaine Bear, made famous by the 2023 movie of the same name. You might be surprised to learn that the film’s claim of being “based on a true story” is accurate — but that true story is much more anticlimactic than the ridiculous movie.
The real Cocaine Bear is a black bear from Georgia that happened to find an entire duffel bag full of cocaine in 1985. The drugs had been discarded by Andrew Thornton, a narcotics officer turned drug smuggler, who had dumped them out of his plane over the Chattahoochee National Forest.
Being a bear, the Cocaine Bear’s first instinct was to sample the bag’s contents — in their entirety. Unlike what the movie would have you believe, though, the bear didn’t go on a murderous cocaine-fueled rampage and instead dropped dead from overdose soon after.
You can actually go see the real Cocaine Bear. The taxidermized beast is currently on display in a mall in Lexington, Kentucky.