Caught On Video: Florida Family Says Bear Went Into Garage, Ate Pizza And Took Water

A Florida family found themselves the victims of an unusual theft: pizza stored in a refrigerator in their garage was swiped by a passing bear.

On Friday morning, a security camera recorded a bear ambling through the open garage door of a family home in Longwood, Florida. In the video, the bear can be seen observing the interior of the garage before it disappears off-screen.

The family says that once inside, the bear opened a refrigerator they keep in the garage, where it proceeded to eat some pizza and then exited with some water.

Bear sightings are somewhat common in Longwood, a city located 15 miles north of Orlando, though they aren't unknown to be found in local neighborhoods. Local NBC affiliate WESH2 reported that these ursine cameos are becoming less frequent due to the use of bear-proof trash cans in the area.

Another Longwood resident, Rikki Koberg-Perrero, posted photos and video to her social media accounts of local law enforcement in April 2018, attempting to retrieve two bears from her SUV after they had somehow opened the vehicle, most likely looking for food.

Photos taken of the car in the aftermath show that it had been completely destroyed, with the interior torn to shreds.

"A warning to all – be aware to lock your car doors. The bears are smart enough to open doors," she wrote in the Facebook post.

The strange combination of incidents involving bears and pizza, while rare, aren't entirely unique.

In 2017, a surveillance camera caught footage of a mama bear and two cubs breaking into a pizzeria in Estes Park, Colorado, where they proceeded to gorge themselves on scraps from the trash can and items stored under the restaurant's food prep counter.

According to the owners, the bears were able to access the kitchen by ripping open a drive-thru window.

Antonio's Real New York Pizza incurred some damage but the owners pleaded with law enforcement not to shoot or hurt any bears that might break into their store in the future, citing bear-proof dumpster tops as the reason for the break-in.

"While I don’t advocate feeding wildlife in any way, I believe it would have been much better to have left the old dumpster tops in place because they wouldn’t become desperate enough to break into houses or businesses and the damage in dollars would be much lower," the owners wrote in a Facebook post.