By 8:30 p.m. the culprit returned; Peters looked outside a window and saw a black bear approaching the hole, which he had not patched.
"I've seen a lot of black bear. I hunt," Peters told the Orlando Sentinel. "I've never seen one this big."
He estimated the bear's size at 400 or 500 pounds.
After failing to scare the bear away, Peters shot the animal in the head with a hunting rifle when it came back inside his house and bore its teeth.
Greg Workman, spokesman for the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, told the Sentinel that the scene was a "mess."
The organization is investigating the incident, but Workman said "it sounds like [Peters] did what he should have done."
Black bears are known to be opportunistic eaters, scavenging food food in the fall months in preparation for winter hybernation.
Earlier this month, a California man who died of a heart attack was partially eaten by a black bear that happened upon his corpse.
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