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Bear destroyed after house break-in

A conservation officer was forced to euthanize a black bear in the early hours of Tuesday morning after it broke into a basement suite on Tyrol Crescent. The bear went in through a window and ate food out of the fridge.

A conservation officer was forced to euthanize a black bear in the early hours of Tuesday morning after it broke into a basement suite on Tyrol Crescent.

The bear went in through a window and ate food out of the fridge.

The RCMP got the call at 2:24 a.m. They discovered that the same bear had likely broken into the same residence about 12 hours earlier. There is also evidence that the bear had found food in the yard of the residence.

It's believed that the same bear broke into a series of homes on Panorama Ridge over the weekend.

When the police attended they managed to tree the bear until the conservation officer arrived at 3:45 a.m. He then used a tranquilizer to immobilize it. Upon investigation, it was determined that the same bear had been captured in Squamish in 2009 after becoming a nuisance. It was later released on the west side of Cloudburst Mountain.

The conservation officer euthanized the bear as a matter of public safety. It was the second bear euthanized by the conservation office in as many weeks.

"We'd really like people to know to keep their doors and windows closed and not to store their garbage in residences," said conservation officer Dave Jevons. "We're seeing a lot of attempted break-ins and successful break-ins into houses in Whistler."

The conservation office also relocated two bears in the past week. The first bear was hanging out in the day skier lots and venturing into the village on a daily basis. It stole a lunch from a parked vehicle on July 21. That bear was taken to the Meager Creek area and released.

On Sunday, July 25, another bear was captured at the Nicklaus North Golf Course. That bear was eating the seats of golf carts and attempting to break into residences in the neighbourhood. The final straw was when a bear stole food off a barbecue while the residents were cooking. That bear was also taken to Meager Creek and released.

Jevons says 2010 has been a busy one for bear calls, with 134 calls from July 1 to July 27. By comparison, there were just 56 calls in all of July 2009 and 118 calls in July 2008.

"It's been a busy bear year, largely because of the late start to summer and now because of a poor berry crop," said Jevons. "That's created a situation where we have bears coming down into urban areas and looking for food."