Additional Coverage:
- Hungry bear breaks into home and leaves woman furious after eating her KFC while she slept (themirror.com)
A Kentucky woman is feeling a bit down after a large black bear broke into her home and helped itself to her leftover KFC while she was asleep.
Kendra North, from Harlan County, woke up to find her dining room in shambles last week. The bear had entered through an unlocked front door-left ajar intentionally to let in some air since their air conditioning was broken-and made off with her fried chicken. North explained that the tempting scent of fast food was apparently too much for the wandering bear to resist.
The massive animal, estimated to weigh between 500 and 700 pounds, didn’t just quietly sneak in for a quick snack. It also destroyed North’s sturdy glass dining table, shattering it completely.
“My table is really thick glass, and it completely shattered it,” she said. North initially thought the loud crash she heard during the night was a car accident outside.
The alarm actually came from her sister, who lives nearby. Around 5 a.m., she spotted the bear leaving the house and called North repeatedly until she answered.
“She was like, ‘Bro, there’s a bear, and it just walked out of your house and came down your steps,’” North recalled. The bear then came into the yard and looked her straight in the eyes.
North suspects the animal was drawn by food left outside and admits, “I’m a little sad over my KFC.”
Just two days later, North saw another bear on her porch while she was inside making sloppy Joes. Officials from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources are advising residents to secure anything that might attract bears and are focusing on community education and “BearWise” safety measures rather than trying to capture the animal.
Encounters like this are common in Harlan County’s wooded areas, where the black bear population remains stable but concentrated. Since 2009, a controlled hunting season has been in place.
Bear Program Coordinator John Hast warned that outdoor food is a major lure. “If you store pet food or feed your dogs outside, make sure you’re not leaving any out on the porch,” he advised.
“That’ll keep the bear from coming right in and getting an easy meal.”