In a video that has since gone viral, Hartford County resident Kirstin Levine, of Bristol, posted a home surveillance video on social media that showed a bear sauntering up her family’s driveway with a missing Amazon package in its mouth on Monday, Aug. 23.
“Yea (sic) so if anyone sees an Amazon package in the Chippens Hill area with my name on it…feel free to bring it back?” Levine wrote in her post. “This guy just took my package! You think @amazon gives replacements for bear thieves?!?”
The package wound up in a neighbor’s yard once the bear discarded it, though Levine found humor in the entire incident after she was alerted by Amazon that a package had been dropped off.
Once the video went viral online, many made comparisons, including relating it to Charmin toilet paper commercials on social media.
“I was taken aback because I wasn’t expecting anyone else in my driveway,” she said the NBC Connecticut. "It was hysterical like I said, I knew nothing in there was going to be irreplaceable so it was a fun afternoon for sure.”
According to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), If you encounter a bear while in your yard or hiking, “make your presence known by yelling or making other loud noises. Never attempt to get closer to a bear. If a bear does not retreat, slowly leave the area.”
“Black bears should never be fed – either intentionally or unintentionally,” DEEP Wildlife Division Director Jenny Dickson said. “Bears that are attracted to homes by easily accessible foods lose their fear of humans.
“Such bears spend more time in neighborhoods and near people, increasing risks to public safety, the likelihood of property damage, and the possibility that the bears may be hit and killed by vehicles.”
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