Health-conscious bear breaks into Sanders home for banana and SlimFast

At about 2:30 a.m. Sunday, Elden Sanders of Byron woke to the faint sound of rustling blinds. Assuming his wife, Connie, had gotten up for a drink of water, he sat up only to discover she was still asleep beside him. Connie, meanwhile, had heard the same noise and assumed Elden had already gotten out of bed.

Curious, Elden walked toward the kitchen to investigate.

What he found was anything but ordinary.

Standing on the kitchen counter, with its paws in the sink, was a black bear.

The bear had climbed into the house through a kitchen window that had been left open to cool the house. As soon as it noticed, smelled or heard Elden, it quickly scrambled back out the same window.

Elden hurried back to the bedroom.

“There’s a bear in the house,” he told Connie.

“What?!” she replied.

“There’s a bear in the house,” he repeated.

“What?!”

Still trying to process what had just happened, Elden returned to the kitchen to take a few pictures of the damage. To his amazement, the bear had come back inside and was once again standing on the counter. As soon as it spotted him, it slipped back out the window for a second time.

Elden then stepped to the front door hoping to photograph the bear outside. Instead, he watched it start back toward the house. After snapping a couple of pictures, he watched as the bear turned and headed directly toward him. Elden quickly slammed the door, and the bear finally ran away.

The early-morning visitor hadn’t caused much damage, but it had certainly made itself at home. It had eaten part of a banana and managed to pry open a container of SlimFast powder.

“My dad figured it must have been a health-conscious bear,” Peter Sanders joked, “or maybe it was on a diet.”

Connie suggested calling 911, and Elden did just that. The responding police officer initially thought the call might be a prank. It didn’t take long to realize it wasn’t.

The only damage to the window screen consisted of three small claw marks just above one pull tab and another above the opposite tab. Somehow, the bear had neatly removed the screen with almost no damage.

“My dad said it took the screen out like a pro,” Peter recalled.

The bear did tear out several slats from the window blinds as it climbed in and out.

Police officers, a deputy sheriff and a Wyoming Game and Fish warden all responded. Although the bear couldn’t be located immediately, the game warden set a trap nearby. Throughout the day, other residents in the neighborhood reported seeing the same bear wandering through the area.

The excitement wasn’t over.

On Sunday evening, family members gathered at the Sanders home, and naturally the conversation centered on the bear. While the adults talked, the children spent most of the evening outside playing capture the flag.

After dark, Luke Sanders was ready to head home. His sister Emily walked him to the car while the rest of the family remained inside the house.

Suddenly, Emily’s terrified screams shattered the evening.

Thinking someone had been injured, family members rushed outside.

“There’s a bear!” she yelled.

Emily said the bear had been calmly walking across the lawn—not toward them, but close enough to send everyone scrambling. As others hurried outside, they heard the bear crashing through bushes along the edge of a nearby cliff before disappearing into the darkness.

The children were badly shaken.

Later that night, family members returned, hoping to scare the bear away if it came back, but they never saw it again.

The sheriff’s department continued patrolling the neighborhood overnight. Deputies reportedly spotted the bear several more times before it was eventually caught in the trap and relocated.

For the Sanders family, it became one of those unforgettable stories that grows no less remarkable with time: the night a grizzly bear quietly climbed through the kitchen window, enjoyed a banana and some SlimFast and briefly turned an ordinary home into the most unusual restaurant in the neighborhood.