Might sound like an Onion article but a black bear really did steal a backpack containing a handgun from a camper in he Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. KARE11 reports Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer Mary Manning and U.S. Forest Service conservation officer Ed Belmore were working together on a detail recently when they were informed of a report of an armed bear on the loose in the BWCA.
A camper told a U.S. Forest Service representative that the bear stole his backpack, with a handgun and several delicious-smelling snacks inside, from a portage landing and ran off into the woods.
Manning says they normally would not have responded to an incident with a bear and a missing pack, but the involvement of a firearm made the situation a bit more urgent. She and Belmore dropped a canoe in at Clearwater Lake and paddled to the portage where the pack was taken.
They eventually found the backpack in a shredded condition surrounded by snack wrappers and the missing handgun still in its case. In a weekly report, the Minnesota DNR called the armed bear incident a first for both their agency and the U.S. Forest Service.
