700-pound black bear bedevils Nev. town

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev., Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Homeowners and authorities in Incline Village, Nev., say they're on the lookout for a marauding, 700-pound black bear.

The bear, they say, has caused as much as $70,000 in damage so far this year, including havoc wrought inside a home it has broken into several times, the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal reported Wednesday.

"The deputies up there all say he's the biggest bear they've ever seen," Carl Lackey, a biologist and bear expert with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, told the newspaper. "He'll walk right by a trap. He won't go in them. He's really random in where he goes. He's made it real tough to catch up with him."

Lackey said the owner of the bear's favorite home shot it with a .44 magnum handgun this year when he confronted it on a staircase. The bullet struck the bruin in the head but only bounced off its skull, he said.

The bear was back two weeks later, once again breaking into garages, the newspaper said. Police estimate it has broken into 40 to 50 garages this year.