Some cheekily named baked goods will soon be living up to their name after a bear broke into a car parked in the British Properties Saturday night.
Tracy Lydiatt was visiting friends on Rabbit Lane for the weekend and left her "Great Bear Patties," in the car overnight. She awoke Sunday morning to neighbours alerting her the rear window had been smashed.
Lydiatt said she immediately knew it wasn't the work of a human.
"All of our valuables were there. Looking around the broken window, there was a lot of mud and slobber, basically, and then I found some black hairs on the car. Also there's some claw marks on the leather," she said.
Lydiatt developed the organic, gluten-free, non-genetically modified, soy-free, dairy-free, nut-free, vegan chocolate coconut gogi berry cookies to market to fellow Crossfit athletes, who like to keep to a "paleo" diet consisting of only natural ingredients that would have been available to foraging cavemen.
Bears appear to have that in common with Crossfitters, Lydiatt noted.
"We also actually had a bag of Cheezies in the car and it didn't touch that so we've been joking about the bear having good taste," she said.
The name came from the treat's (physical) resemblance to bear scat.
"As I was stirring it in the bowl the first time, I looked down and thought 'These look like bear poop,'" she said. 'It's a cheeky, inspiredby-nature name."
Ironically, Lydiatt had just one bag with her, which she had brought to town because of her nomination for the B.C. Food Processors Association's Rising Star award.
The cookies are distributed locally at Sprout Organic Market in North Vancouver's Queensbury neighbourhood and at Nourish Market in Lynn Valley Village.
But the cookies weren't the only thing on the menu for the bear in question, according to Christine Miller, education coordinator for the North Shore Black Bear Society.
The same bear may also have opened the rear door to a vehicle parked just one street away on Moyne Drive early Sunday morning.
"There was Easter candy in the back so he has a sweet tooth, this bear," Miller said.
Since the break-ins, the society has been posting signs and reminding people about best practices when it comes to bear attractants and cars.
"People are very aware now that they cannot leave any food whatsoever in their vehicles because this bear has learned. .. that food is in cars," Miller said.
Bears have been known to break into cars simply because they were attracted by the smell of fast food that had previously been in the car or by crumbs left on the floor or between the seats, Miller said.
And he knows how to get into cars either by force or by letting himself in through the door, Miller added.
"They've lost 30 per cent of their body weight, approximately, during hibernation so once they come out and start getting themselves regulated, they are quite hungry. That doesn't mean they become more aggressive, it means they become more opportunistic. so if people leave any kind of accessible food outside for them, they'll be looking for it," Miller said.
