Bear breaks into bakery and eats all the pies -- except the rhubarb

DRAKE, Colo., July 17 (UPI) -- Who knew bears had such discerning palates? The owner of a bakery in Colorado opened up shop recently to find a very large customer had broken in overnight and eaten every single one of her pies, though apparently turning up its nose at the strawberry rhubarb one.

Mikaela Lehnert, the daughter of the owner of the Colorado Cherry Company, told the Guardian they opened the bakery Tuesday morning to find the kitchen a disaster. The bear had broken in through a window, climbed up on top of the oven and ate "about two dozen pies, bags of cocoa and a bag of sugar.

"He went for the apple and the cherry and left behind the strawberry rhubarb so he was a picky little guy," she said.

Lehnert told KDVR-TV in Denver they found the bear's paw prints on a wall outside the bakery's basement door.

"These are paw prints. I'm assuming he probably stood up and took a look and noticed he couldn't get in through the steel door," she said.

Unfortunately, the bear remained on the one side of the kitchen that can't be seen by the Lehnerts' surveillance camera, so they never got a good look at him. Lehnert said they plan to reinforce the windows because they fear the bear might be a repeat customer after getting a taste of their pies.

In the meantime, the Colorado Cherry Company might want to send a thank-you note to its unexpected guest.

"If anything it's boosted [our business] because it put our pies and product out there," Lehnert said.