Bear Steals Fisherman's iPad
A bear in California might be in the woods of San Bernardino National Forest today trading stocks, downloading his favorite music to his iTunes account and reading up on the latest headlines on his brand new iPad.
The cinnamon-colored bear, thought to be the same bear seen in this video, casually nabbed a backpack from a local fisherman around 3 p.m. at Jenks Lake in San Bernardino, Calif. Saturday, and walked off with a little more than he bargained for.
An iPad was inside the unnamed fisherman's backpack, along with a lone granola bar, which he believed is the reason the bear was attracted to it in the first place.
Jesse Dinkel, a 44-year-old- theater producer from Yucaipa, Calif., witnessed the theft and said the fisherman attempted to save his iPad before it was too late.
"He didn't get real close. But he kind of followed it to see if it would drop his backpack. The bear went all the way down the hill, don't know what happened to it after that," Dinkel told ABC News.
Dinkel captured the alleged four-legged perpetrator on video as the fuzzy bandit came back for a second round about 15 minutes later. This time, despite onlookers' attempts to scare him off with loud noises and whistling, the bear got away with a large tupperware container full of food.
"The tupperware did get recovered. Just down the hill a ways. But who knows what happened to the backpack. Those bears are really fast and he just took off," said Dinkel.
Fellow fishermen joked with the iPad's owner saying "Good luck explaining that to the insurance company," Dinkel said.
Apparently bear sightings are not unusual for this forested area, but the lake visitors were a bit uncomfortable with how cozy the bear felt getting that close to humans.
"I go fishing all the time. It's the first time I've seen bears, but I've had friends that have seen them at Jenks Lake before. But not this close," Dinkel said. "The bear wasn't afraid. Everyone was yelling at it and it just kept walking closer."
Park rangers were called to the scene, but despite the iPad having a built in tracking system, the forest was too dense to detect the signal.
"They came down and assessed the situation, and just told people to clean up their stuff around there. But the bear never came back after that," said Dinkel.
Although Dinkel caught plenty of fish on Saturday, the best thing he walked away with was a vivid memory of his first bear sighting.
"It was absurd almost. Because when the bear first came to get the backpack with the iPad, just seeing the bear go by me with a backpack in its mouth, it looked like it was to going to school," Dinkel laughed.
San Bernardino National Forest's Public Affairs Officer, John Miller, said the iPad has still not been recovered.
"It's a bummer. I hope he finds it," Miller said.
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