Bear's hams on Hamm's beer

HAYWARD, Wis., Oct. 19 (UPI) -- A bear wandered into a Hayward, Wis., grocery store and sat down on top of a stock of Hamm's beer, the store manager said.

The 18-month-old, 125-pound bear had run across a street to get into the store Thursday, the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram reported.

"At first, it ran into the door, but then (the door) opened, and it went inside. It seemed really scared," said Tino Becker, 16, a German foreign-exchange high school student.

Becker called the police.

"The standing joke up here was that it was the 'Hamm's bear,'" said Jon LeBlanc, the store's manager. "We like to say the Hamm's bear returned to the beer," he added, referring to the cartoon bear in Hamm's long-ago television commercials.

Police arrived, as well as an employee, armed with a tranquilizer gun, from the Wilderness Walk Zoo and Recreation Park near Hayward, LeBlanc said.

Officials removed the tranquilized bear, which had been in the store around 75 minutes, and turned it over to the state Department of Natural Resources.