The Colorado Cherry Company, a Colorado staple, offers pies so legendary that even bears want a taste. This week a young bear broke into the Colorado Cherry Company’s location on Highway 36 north of Lyons to chow down on a blueberry pie. Colorado Cherry Company Surprisingly, it’s not the first time this has happened. Back in 2015, a bear was able to get in and eat 28 pies, according to employees. The bear enjoyed many flavors but apparently did not touch strawberry rhubarb. The Cherry Company is owned by the family of CBS Colorado’s First Alert Meteorologist Alex Lehnert.
With Alex’s brother now running the shop, a new generation of bears seems to have taken an interest. Wednesday, employees at the Colorado Cherry Company near Lyons arrived to discover someone with a taste for blueberry pie had made an overnight visit to the shop. “An eaten pie on the ground with the paw prints, little blueberry paw prints on the glass,” said Bailey Sandahl, general manager of the Colorado Cherry Company location. The clues left behind pointed to one suspect. “We do have like some prints here from his nose,” said Sielh Avila, a Colorado Cherry Company employee, while indicating the window the bear entered through. Just after the shop closed, employees think the smell of fresh-baked pie wafting from some windows lured the bear in.
“Behind this window is where we have our ovens, and with them on, it gets pretty hot. So we like to open this during the day,” Avila said. “I guess the closers, they didn’t close it all the way.” It was a simple mistake, and one that made it easy as pie for the bear to break in. “I guess it was open just enough that the bear could smell it. And we do have a screen which used to be right here in front of the windows. And I guess he tore right through that. He opened the window and he climbed right in,” Avila said. “He went straight for the pies by the register, and he pulled a couple off the shelf, put them on the floor, helped himself to those.” The bear ate his fill, perused the store’s other offerings, then left, politely not breaking anything. “That’s him again on the other side, looking at the brochures, deciding where he’s going to go next,” Sandahl said, chuckling, while looking at security camera video showing the bear’s activities in the shop.
“Nothing was broken … except the pie.” “It says outside that Yogi Bear eats here, and it lives up to the hype,” a customer said Friday. “This seems like paradise for a bear.” Customers can’t blame the bear. “I think the bear made a good choice, picking the cherry pie because it is the best pie here,” another customer said. But the Cherry Company says he won’t be receiving an invite back anytime soon. “As cute as it was, we don’t want it happening again,” Sandahl said. “A fed bear is a dead bear so we’re doing everything we can to help fix that, so making sure triple checking all the doors are locked up at night, making sure the trash is sealed up and beared off.” It’s been a record-high year for bear sightings and conflicts in Colorado.
Officials have warned this year’s drought is pushing hungry bears closer to the Front Range, and to humans, in search of food. The Cherry Company admits there’s more bear-proofing that can be done on the old building. They’re looking at reinforcing the doors and windows, and replacing doorknobs, because once a bear finds a food source, they will go back in. “I’m going to keep coming back where I’m fed. So obviously, you don’t want to encourage that. You want to keep the bear population away from the rest of us, for their sake and our sake,” Sandahl said. “It’s a give-and-take. We lost a pie or two, but I think we’ll live at the end of the day.”
Conservative writer and political analyst Mollie Hemingway appeared on Special Report with Bret Baier tonight and took a swipe at Senator John Thune for not…
Wolves in sheep’s clothing rarely campaign against compassion. Often, they weaponize it. Christian voters should ask what kind of justice their promises really serve, Owen…
The pain of discipline may sting today, but we are reminded that endurance turns today’s struggle into tomorrow’s strength, producing a harvest of righteousness and…
Michigan just elected as senator someone who says that America “deserved” 9/11. Politicians forming a new government in Israel won’t call Hamas a terrorist group.…
A Mexican national is facing a federal drug trafficking charge after officials say he was caught driving a van containing over 440 pounds of methamphetamine…
One man died and another was injured after a small plane crashed into woods near homes in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County fire officials said. Around 5:30…
Scammers posing as federal agents across the country are dispatching couriers armed with secret passwords to collect gold bars from retirees, in some cases draining…
A week after Democrat LaKesha Womack pulled off a stunning upset in North Carolina’s red-leaning 14th Congressional District, she’s not headed to Washington, D.C.—she’s headed…
When life feels shaken and uncertain, God remains our unchanging refuge—the sure foundation beneath us when everything else seems to shift. His Word reminds us…
Even when you feel invisible in your struggle, God sees every tear, every burden, and every silent prayer. Your exhaustion has not escaped His attention.…
Democrats swept Republicans off the map in nearly every purple and blue state, but in many of those same states, voters also approved conservative ballot…
A mother and daughter are dead in a suspected grizzly bear attack near Bella Coola, British Columbia, devastating their family, according to the victims’ relatives…
Real love protects the innocent, refusing to ignore harm, standing for truth, and courageously defending the innocent from anything that would celebrate wrongdoing or threaten…
Real love protects the innocent, refusing to ignore harm, standing for truth, and courageously defending the innocent from anything that would celebrate wrongdoing or threaten…
The pain of discipline may sting today, but we are reminded that endurance turns today’s struggle into tomorrow’s strength, producing a harvest of righteousness and…
You must be logged in to post a comment.