Bears break into California home to steal pies

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif., July 7 (UPI) -- A California family said a mother bear and her cubs broke into their house to steal some Fourth of July pies.

Brian Halligan said he and his family came home during the holiday weekend to find their refrigerator had been raided by some sloppy burglars who ate their berry pies as well as most of their holiday spread.

Halligan said the kitchen was trashed and there were cheese sticks left behind in a bedroom.

He said the family's youngest daughter spotted the culprits fleeing the domicile.

"The littlest one says 'it's a bear it's a bear!' We thought she was kidding and we turned around and looked and the mama bear was just coming out in the middle of the road and the two cubs were following her playing," Halligan told KOVR-TV.

He said the bears apparently entered the house by pulling off a window screen. He said the windows in the home will be kept latched in the future.

The raid came just two weeks after mountain biker Davis Souza collided with a bear while riding on a Sierra Nevada trail in California. He captured the crash on his helmet-mounted camera.