Trashey the Bear paid our home a visit yesterday evening. I was sitting on the couch reading and didn’t hear a thing. Neither did Dawn or Guy. While we were oblivious, Trashey was on our back patio, silently maneuvering one of our garbage cans from behind a lawn chair, without disturbing the lawn chair. He dragged it down a walkway and quietly tipped it over, removed the lid and carried off a big bag of garbage without spilling anything.
We looked out the window and saw the garbage can lying on its side, lid off. What the hell? We went outside to investigate. As we were standing next to the fallen garbage can trying to figure out what happened or who did it, Dawn looked up, pointed down the back alley and said, “I think I know who did it!” And so we saw Trashey on a nearby hillside, pulling stuff out of our garbage bag. Some shouting and hand clapping made him leave and I went over to pick up the garbage. But first I had to drive away two deer who rushed in and started eating the trash. I think the deer are colluding with Trashy.
Twelve years I’ve stored those garbage cans on the back patio with no problems. We even have game camera video of three bears walking past the garbage cans. No problems until Trashey the genius showed up. He’s getting somewhat famous in the community as being particularly bold and unafraid in his quest for an easy living.
I didn’t have a camera handy, so recorded Trashy with a Toonograph.
Update on 7/22/18: Recent news reports mention the capture and relocation of a trash-raiding brown-phase black bear. It is likely our very own Trashey. I wish him the best in his new life. Hopefully he won’t return.
Postscript, October 2, 2018- I learned that poor Trashey died during the deportation process, a victim of effects from the tranquilizers. Apparently this happens quit often but we never hear about it. It’s a sad fate for our forest brethren. Now there’s another bear hanging around town and getting into garbage. I worry about that as we have no other place to put our garbage cans other than on the back patio. So far, so good. The bear raided one of my neighbor’s cans and hauled a bag of trash into the woods.
J.R. Herman 