Black Bear Wanders Into Anchorage-Area Hospital, Raids Halloween Candy Bucket

A black bear got into a hospital emergency department on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, near Anchorage, Alaska, at around 2 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 12, and made straight for a bucket of donated Halloween candy, according to Alaska’s News Source.

The bear entered through the emergency department and wandered the halls before finding the candy and eating from it. Sherri Warnke, who was leaving the hospital after visiting her mother, encountered the animal about 30 feet away in a dimly lit hallway. She did not have a hospital badge, which meant the doors along the corridor were locked to her and she could not simply duck into a room.

Warnke backed away slowly rather than draw attention to herself. The bear, for its part, seemed more interested in the candy bucket than in her.

Hospital staff eventually made an announcement over the intercom alerting people in the building that a bear was loose inside. Even so, some doctors came out into the hallway to take pictures of it.

Warnke left the building safely, and the bear exited through the same entrance it had used to get in. No one was hurt in the encounter.

Afterward, hospital staff showed Warnke a surveillance image of the bear standing at the emergency department’s reception desk, which they joked made it look like the animal was checking in for an appointment.

The incident comes as black bears across Alaska are in a period of heavy feeding ahead of winter hibernation, typically scavenging salmon, berries and whatever else they can find before denning up for the season.