The Pincher Creek Store was vandalized by a black bear

Employees of a small stationery store in southern Alberta were shocked to find someone had broken into the business, but they were even more confused when they learned the culprit was a bear.

Employee Patty McKenzie said she came into her shift at Pincher Office Products in Pincher Creek on Monday to find a large hole in the front window.

“I didn't know someone had broken the window until I got up for work at 7 a.m. and the alarm went off,” he says.

“I walked in, I turned it off, I heard voices… I turned around, Const. Dennis stood in the pit.

It's understood the RCMP headed to the store when an alarm company alerted them to trouble, but the criminal who broke the window had fled the scene by the time they arrived. Officers stood guard at the store until employees arrived.

“He said they didn't know what really happened,” McKenzie said.

He hired someone to fix the broken window and another person to help clean the glass.

It wasn't until the next day that Patti and store owner Christine Lank reviewed security camera footage that they realized it was a black bear that had broken in.

“That's when we saw the bear, and it was walking down Main Street, looking at the front door… Then you see the bear speeding down the aisle in the store.

A black bear has broken into Pincher Office Products in Pincher Creek, Alta. (Patty McKenzie)“He walked to the back door, looked around, walked down another hallway, and then went out the window.”

McKenzie estimated the bear was in the store for a total of about five minutes.

“We had to get the pictures from the (security) camera to prove it was true because most people were like, 'no, you've got to be kidding'.”

According to McKenzie, the uninvited visitor was supposed to weigh 300 pounds.

A black bear has broken into Pincher Office Products in Pincher Creek, Alta. (Patty McKenzie)Although they had a bull at their china shop, McKenzie said the bear didn't break anything except the window.

“He wasn't worried about anything,” she said. “We have all kinds of breakables in the store, and he could really do a good job of breaking a lot.”

“That was a very good bear.”

McKenzie said the responding wildlife officer said the bear might have seen its reflection in the glass window, prompting it to break through.