500-Pound Brown Bear Raids Nearby Gas Station for Food

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Gas station encounters normally aren’t that pleasant. There are all sorts of people that come in and out of gas stations. We normally go in, grab the snacks we want, pay for our gas, and leave. Undoubtedly, convenience store clerks deal with all sorts of unsavory types, except for this particular night. This clerk was in for the surprise of his life when he met an aggressive bear face-to-face inside his store! 

Brown Bear Sighting in California

The YouTube video shown at the top of this blog post takes us to a small gas station in California, where a clerk has an unlikely run-in with a bear! The A&E YouTube channel shared this video to their 10 million+ subscribers. This channel shares all sorts of entertaining news, from hilarious animal interactions, mysterious crimes, and undercover police work. 

Aggressive Bear Raids Grocery Store

At the start of the video, we are taken to Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe in California. This clerk was working the graveyard shift at this gas station. He said in this documentary that he was on his way to go do his trash duties outside when he was met with a massive 500-pound brown bear entering the store. 

This isn’t the first interaction this clerk has had with this bear. However, those times took place outside when he would chase the bear off the property. Likely, this bear has been fed or found food outside of the gas station, which is why he continually comes back. According to the California Government, it is illegal to feed bears. “Wild animals are in trouble, and the problem is people: our carelessness and irresponsibility with food and garbage.” 

The clerk thought he would be able to easily shoo the bear out of the store. However, the bear lunges at the clerk, and he backs up. Now that the bear knows he has his full range, he makes his way over to the snack aisle. Clearly, he is looking for something specific. He grabs a bag of snickers and makes his way out.

Why Do Bears Lunge? 

As we can see from the video above, the clerk thought this interaction of stepping toward the bear would scare the bear off. And while this can absolutely work sometimes to shoo bears away, in this instance, it did not work. 

The US Forest Service shares that a bear lunging at someone is a clear sign to back off. This is also known as blowing and bluff-charging. And let us reinforce that bears are bigger, faster, and stronger than even the best of men. 

Bears can weigh anywhere from 50-1,500 pounds, reach up to 11 feet in height, and run up to 35 miles per hour. It was smart of this store clerk to back up and not test this bear any further.