Young bear freed from trash cage

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ESTES PARK, Colo., Oct. 12 (UPI) -- The owner of a Colorado lodge said her chef freed a young bear wedged under a cage designed to keep animals out of an outdoor trash bin.

Denice Kristoffersen, owner of the Wild Basin Lodge & Event Center in Estes Park, said she alerted staff members to a strange noise coming from the trash area and they went outside to find the bear stuck under the metal cage erected around the trash bins, KMGH-TV, Denver, reported Tuesday.

Kristoffersen said the mother bear was attempting to free her young, but she fled when she saw the humans.

The lodge owner said her executive chef, Brent Lewis, pulled the young bear out from under the cage and it headed toward the nearby Rocky Mountain National Park.