"The one he loved the most was beef and blue cheese."
September 30, 2011 6:12 AM   Subscribe

Bear breaks into pizza shop, doesn't leave tip. [video] Lawrance was washing dishes at Fat Tony's Pizza in Whistler, B.C. Monday night when a furry four-legged customer with a big appetite arrived about 7:30 p.m. for some grub. More.
posted by Fizz (62 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Those people are standing a lot closer than I would. I wouldn't want that bear to think I was interested in swiping his pizza, or having him all of a sudden feel trapped.
posted by Forktine at 6:15 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


I have worked in a pizza shop. That bear would by no means be our scariest or most-obnoxious customer.
posted by Infinite Jest at 6:15 AM on September 30, 2011 [12 favorites]


I love that he eats them slice by slice with both hands.. was half expecting him to just eat an entire pizza in one bite, box and all.
posted by pwally at 6:15 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


Sometimes you eat the pizza, sometimes the bear eats the pizza.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:18 AM on September 30, 2011 [24 favorites]


This makes me miserable, because that bear was almost certainly killed.
posted by Sternmeyer at 6:22 AM on September 30, 2011 [12 favorites]


for some grub

Oh, you.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:24 AM on September 30, 2011


Is there something wrong with the fact that in today's modern age of technology (cellphones, camera, video) the first reaction when a bear walks into a pizza shop is not to call the police/authorities and make sure everyone is safe but "I've got to upload this shit to youtube and facebook."?
posted by Fizz at 6:25 AM on September 30, 2011


This makes me miserable, because that bear was almost certainly killed.

If youtube commenters are to be believed, it was.

I was a little less angry when I read the article, which said that they did try to scare it off but unsuccessfully. I just feel like pots/pans and lots of loud noises could have most likely done the trick.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 6:27 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


Is there something wrong with the fact that in today's modern age of technology (cellphones, camera, video) the first reaction when a bear walks into a pizza shop is not to call the police/authorities and make sure everyone is safe but "I've got to upload this shit to youtube and facebook."?

Are the two mutually exclusive? Does the presence of youtube video preclude anyone calling the police beforehand, or a separate actor calling off-camera?
posted by FatherDagon at 6:28 AM on September 30, 2011 [6 favorites]


Bear: Carrying boombox Two slices.
Sal: No service till you turn that shit off!
Bear: Two slices.
Pino: Turn it off!
Sal: Listen Bear, I can't even hear myself think! You are disturbing me! You are disturbing my customers.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:28 AM on September 30, 2011 [11 favorites]


... although later in the article it does say "... the bear finally left once the girls made some noise."

Which makes me wonder just how hard they tried to scare it off in the first place. Goddammit.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 6:29 AM on September 30, 2011


Is there something wrong with the fact that in today's modern age of technology (cellphones, camera, video) the first reaction when a bear walks into a pizza shop is not to call the police/authorities and make sure everyone is safe but "I've got to upload this shit to youtube and facebook."?

I'm guessing people were always like that, it's just now they have the chance to show everyone how they're reacting. We also don't get to see anything from anyone who doesn't film it. I know I saw a bear in the woods pretty recently (first time I'd seen one in the wild) and my reaction was NOT to film it with my camera phone. Instead, my wife and I started singing our preagreed upon "scaring bears away" songs, so that bear got an earful of tuneless Toto.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:29 AM on September 30, 2011 [2 favorites]


Were I there I would not find this funny. This is a tagged bear making it clear to anyone who knows anything about bears that it is a problem animal with a taste for human food.

There is generally only one real solution to problem animals. This source of amusement is a death sentence
posted by Blasdelb at 6:30 AM on September 30, 2011


Unfortunately - a fed bear is a dead bear.
posted by helmutdog at 6:31 AM on September 30, 2011


Is there something wrong with the fact that in today's modern age of technology (cellphones, camera, video) the first reaction when a bear walks into a pizza shop is not to call the police/authorities and make sure everyone is safe but "I've got to upload this shit to youtube and facebook."?

Actually, if you listen to the audio, at the end a woman is authoritatively saying "I need you to get out of the way please," which I took to be the police arriving (and why the person shooting the YT video stopped then. So it seems as if someone had, in fact, called the authorities.
posted by aught at 6:31 AM on September 30, 2011


This makes me miserable, because that bear was almost certainly killed.

At least he died the way we all want to die...gorging on a pizza while millions watch on youtube.
posted by Fizz at 6:32 AM on September 30, 2011 [12 favorites]


I do not wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
posted by h00py at 6:34 AM on September 30, 2011


Those people are standing a lot closer than I would.

Don't worry, he won't come back into the kitchen. There's a velvet rope!
posted by DU at 6:36 AM on September 30, 2011


Related.
posted by The Ultimate Olympian at 6:38 AM on September 30, 2011


I feel sucker punched.
posted by Trurl at 6:40 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


Is there something wrong with the fact that in today's modern age of technology ...

UPHILL BOTH WAYS
posted by DU at 6:41 AM on September 30, 2011 [3 favorites]


Response to bear entering pizza shop.

1. Find safety.
2. Call Police/Authorities.
3. Start recording.
4. Get interviewed by local news team. Say inane reactionary nonsense: "He came out of nowhere. Won't someone think of the children! We need some kind of Bear Patrol or a tax that would alternatively fund the newly proposed Bear Patrol."
posted by Fizz at 6:47 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


I think this intruder calls for a guy on a buffalo.
posted by rabbitsnake at 6:50 AM on September 30, 2011 [2 favorites]


"At 10:30 p.m. he came back and we called the cops," she said.

"Then he came around 2 a.m."

But by then, they had closed for the night.




Man, I've had weekends like that.
posted by Skygazer at 6:55 AM on September 30, 2011 [3 favorites]


Bulgaroktonos: Instead, my wife and I started singing our preagreed upon "scaring bears away" songs, so that bear got an earful of tuneless Toto.

Toto? If I was that bear I would've eaten you guys.
posted by Skygazer at 6:57 AM on September 30, 2011 [2 favorites]


I saw a bear in the woods pretty recently

Was he Catholic?
posted by DU at 7:00 AM on September 30, 2011 [5 favorites]


No. He was a Methodist.
posted by Skygazer at 7:02 AM on September 30, 2011


At the end of the video you can see the shop door with the "HELP WANTED" sign on it, which suggests that the people were outside the shop and the bear was inside. So people were safe before the filming began.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 7:27 AM on September 30, 2011


Assuming no element of surprise, can a young man with a camera phone consistently escort a bear from a pizzeria?
posted by horsewithnoname at 7:31 AM on September 30, 2011 [2 favorites]


Basically this video is: "LOL euthanized bear."
posted by jnnla at 8:07 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


This makes me miserable, because that bear was almost certainly killed.

If youtube commenters are to be believed, it was.


I'm going to remain skeptical. When a moose was recently rampaging through my neighbourhood, it was shot because there weren't proper resources on hand to tranq and remove it. This is Whistler. And that is Youtube.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 8:11 AM on September 30, 2011


This makes me miserable, because that bear was almost certainly killed.

If you feel miserable knowing that an animal was killed, you should feel miserable anytime you look in a pizza place.
posted by John Cohen at 8:12 AM on September 30, 2011 [11 favorites]


Basically this video is: "LOL euthanized bear."

Every Carlin clip I watch is basically 'LOL old guy died.'
posted by shakespeherian at 8:13 AM on September 30, 2011


If youtube commenters are to be believed, it was.

Of course, if youtube commenters are to believed, the dislike bar is the size of Justin Bieber's penis. Or something.
posted by inigo2 at 8:24 AM on September 30, 2011 [2 favorites]


They really missed an opportunity for a great impromptu eating contest.
posted by orme at 8:27 AM on September 30, 2011


If you feel miserable knowing that an animal was killed, you should feel miserable anytime you look in a pizza place.

Why yes, I am vegetarian, thank you.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 8:35 AM on September 30, 2011


This makes me miserable, because that bear was almost certainly killed.

If you feel miserable knowing that an animal was killed, you should feel miserable anytime you look in a pizza place.


Lame equivalency. I assume you feel sad every time you use a modern piece of technology because unmanned drones are guided by computers.
posted by oneirodynia at 8:39 AM on September 30, 2011


Is there something wrong with the fact that in today's modern age of technology ...

It's not just modern technology. As Weegee's famous Coney Island drowning shot reveals, concern with image first (note the woman in the centre of this image of tragedy who has just spotted Weegee and his camera) is hardly new to the cellphone generation. Sometimes the media try to trick it up by giving it a more honorable sounding "citizen journalism" tag, but more often than not, the reliance on voyeuristic people who put the camera before the event is a staple of what gets into newscasts. Sic semper...

Don't know where I'm going with this, other than to say don't look any time soon for a sudden development of social consciousness in the face of "Damn! I could be on CNN tonight!"
posted by Mike D at 8:41 AM on September 30, 2011 [3 favorites]


As of a few hours ago, the bear was still alive and on the run from the cops. I fervently hope they can just relocate him rather than put him down.

And I'm not a vegetarian, John Cohen, and would be heart-broken if he were euthanized. I don't have any kind of personal connection to the poor, stupid domesticated animals that are raised to become my food, but I've seen the bear in action and now I sympathize with him. I don't feel guilty about that discrepancy--I know I'm not cut out to be a pig farmer, like the family of one my son's friend's friends are. They raise the pigs and then eat them for dinner. Does that make them better than me, or you better than all of us, because you only eat plants? I'm having a hard time following the logic here.

Hell, maybe you should feel guilty for eating resources the bear would have, and forcing him to opt for pizza in town.
posted by misha at 8:56 AM on September 30, 2011 [5 favorites]


The staff eventually made noise and scared the bear away. A conservation officer arrived the next morning and spoke with Mont about setting up a trap. - National Post

It sounds like this particular bear lived to get the munchies another day.
posted by roger ackroyd at 8:59 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


Pizza Bear don't care... Pizza bear don't leave a tip...
posted by symbioid at 9:07 AM on September 30, 2011 [7 favorites]


you aren't really supposed to leave tips at the buck-a-slice pizza shop, are you? Cuz....if you are, I've kind of been a jerk
posted by Hoopo at 9:30 AM on September 30, 2011


If you feel miserable knowing that an animal was killed, you should feel miserable anytime you look in a pizza place.

Why yes, I am vegetarian, thank you.


That's nice (so am I), but my point wasn't so much about whether anyone's a vegetarian. My point is that we often have a very strong reaction to what we can plainly see in front of us (or, in this case, can deduce is about to happen to a creature we're looking at). We often have a different type of reaction (or lack thereof) to what we aren't looking at.

I think there's a profound moral obligation to not just emotionally react to what we're specifically looking at, but to think about the importance of what is out of our field of vision. Those who base their moral views only on their emotional responses to what they're looking at have an impoverished view, not an admirable one. (I'm not accusing anyone of doing that in this thread.)
posted by John Cohen at 10:08 AM on September 30, 2011


Am I the only one who sees Misha's pro-bear stance as eponysterical? (I'm so old.)

I would happily YouTube a pig breaking into a pizza parlor to eat pepperoni pizza. Or a cow attacking a McDonalds.

But the bear? He's down on his luck. His territory is encroached. Pizza smells good. He's the animal equivalent of hobo with a shotgun. Yes, he's a problem, but you can't help but cheer for him a little bit and fantasize that he escapes to the woods to tell stories to all his bear buddies about that time he totally ganked those pizzas, brah. Even if you know in the logic side of your brain it won't actually end that way.
posted by Gucky at 11:14 AM on September 30, 2011 [4 favorites]


The fun stopped for me when I realized this was the bear's last meal.

: (
posted by mazola at 11:52 AM on September 30, 2011


Potential last meal, apparently the bear is still on the run.
posted by mazola at 11:54 AM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


At least he died the way we all want to die...gorging on a pizza while millionswatch on youtube.

Maybe the bear made a website detailing how he was going to do this all along so people can read it after the fact; and feel enlightened and compassionate by agreeing with the bear's "freedom of choice".
posted by P.o.B. at 12:12 PM on September 30, 2011


If you feel miserable knowing that an animal was killed, you should feel miserable anytime you look in a pizza place.

Nah. I worked a few years on a cattle ranch, couldn't give a shit about animals raised for meat. Killed and dressed out plenty of cattle, to say nothing of god knows how many we loaded into jampacked cattle liners to be sold. I know exactly where my meat comes from, and I am OK with it.

My "strong reaction" comes because I hate the inevitable and necessary result of dangerous wild animals interacting with, and becoming attenuated to, humans and their food sources. I like wild things to stay wild.
posted by Sternmeyer at 12:14 PM on September 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


Good thing it wasn't a panda. One of those just eats, shoots, and leaves.
posted by RobotHero at 12:42 PM on September 30, 2011


The video no longer plays. :(
posted by tzikeh at 12:59 PM on September 30, 2011


Good thing it wasn't a panda. One of those just eats, shoots, and leaves.

YOUR COMMAS ARE KILLING THE JOKE
posted by shakespeherian at 1:54 PM on September 30, 2011 [3 favorites]


,
posted by RobotHero at 3:26 PM on September 30, 2011


The video is now marked private. Bummer.

As for the meat is sad derail, ask me about the rabbits sometime. They were delicious.
posted by bilabial at 5:04 PM on September 30, 2011


I ran into wolves, bears, moose, deer and drunken Japanese during my years living in and hiking around Whistler.

There is no shortage of wildlife in British Columbia, and when bears in particular become so acclimated to humans that they do something like this, they need to be put down.

I suppose it could be seen as sad, somehow, but that's the way of it, and it happens all the time, off-camera.

Note: not advocating euthanasia of Japanese tourists.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:39 PM on September 30, 2011


John Cohen: "I think there's a profound moral obligation to not just emotionally react to what we're specifically looking at, but to think about the importance of what is out of our field of vision. Those who base their moral views only on their emotional responses to what they're looking at have an impoverished view, not an admirable one. (I'm not accusing anyone of doing that in this thread.)"

I see your point, but I believe just as strongly that adults should be able to make choices based on their own morality without being chastised as if they were misguided children.

I felt your previous comment had a bit of that sense to it, which is why I responded as I did, but maybe I was mistaken.
posted by misha at 5:44 PM on September 30, 2011


The video link is now broken, so this just became a ZLYT (Zero Link You Tube).
posted by w0mbat at 5:52 PM on September 30, 2011


Here's another link to the bear video, but you do have to watch a short ad before it plays.
posted by misha at 5:59 PM on September 30, 2011


misha's link not-broken-o-vision.
posted by !Jim at 11:34 PM on September 30, 2011


Mod note: I switched out the broken YouTube link in the original post for the new working link
posted by taz (staff) at 1:26 AM on October 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


[I switched out the broken YouTube link in the original post for the new working link]

See? Already batting a thousand in the mod department! Go taz!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:59 AM on October 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Here in NM bears which end up in towns and other places with people are almost always tranquilized and relocated rather than euthanized. There is an issue with a bear becoming too accustomed to human contact to be afraid of it, but there is still a strong preference of relocation, and to place the bear well outside where they were wandering so they wouldn't just come back quickly.
posted by krinklyfig at 10:28 AM on October 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Note: not advocating euthanasia of Japanese tourists.

Tranquilizers are more humane.
posted by krinklyfig at 10:30 AM on October 1, 2011


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