Bear Seeking Sausages Pokes Nose into Altadena Window

Susan Dimotakis, an Altadena foothill resident off of Alzada Road, sent the following account of a bear visit that took place Monday to Altadena Patch (Dimotakis also wrote about it on a local email group listserv):

We've lived here since 1979 and had many bear 'visitors' but never an attempt to get in the house. 

I cooked some sausages on the stove and they had a strong smell.   I was standing at the kitchen sink and the bear appeared silently and was looking at me through the window. 

I turned lights on in the courtyard and it sauntered around to other windows, looking in.  

I had two windows open in the back of the house and heard a screen tearing.  Went back with my husband and clapped our hands--the bear backed off a bit and we closed both windows.  He continued standing there and looking through the window for a bit.

Lt. Joe Dempsey of the Altadena Sheriff's Station noted that deputies did respond to the scene of the attempted sausage theft.

He said that while the department has heard of a string of recent bear incidents in Sierra Madre, as far as he knows the department has not had a lot of calls about bears in Altadena.

He urged residents in the Chaney Trail area to be on guard for the bear in the coming days in case it returns to the area.

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