‘A little bit of commotion’: Black bear spotted in dumpster behind Florida brewery

Talk about a buzz-kill.

Delivery man Naquarn Valentine was making a routine trip to Fort Myers Brewing Company on Wednesday afternoon when something out back caught his eye.

It was a black bear. A big one. And it was apparently dumpster diving like a pro.

Valentine posted a video of the encounter on his Facebook page.

In the roughly 30-second clip, the bear seems to have just finished his meal; trash is strewn about the ground. It appears to look at the man in the truck briefly, then sits down to calmly lick its paws.

“When you get to your stop but unsure if you should get out and deliver it,” read the Florida man’s caption, with the hashtags #floridalifestyle #florida and #ftmyers.

Valentine told NBC2 he saw the bear “playing in the dumpster” and then tossing out the garbage. He said the up-close encounter was “mind-blowing” and a “once in a lifetime” experience.

The brewery later addressed the issue of the unwanted visitor on its Facebook page and assured fans of the venue that they were safe, even though the animal had revisited the bar later that evening. “There was a little bit of commotion at FMBrew this evening,” read the post, which said that Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials were able to mark the bear with paint to track it. Then an air horn scared it off.

On its website, the FWC gives several tips about how to prevent a black bear from paying you a visit.

Key among them: Secure household garbage in a shed, garage or a wildlife-resistant container.

“Bears are driven by their need to eat and with a sense of smell that can detect odors over a mile away,” the FWC site says. “Problems arise when bears gain access to food sources such as pet foods, garbage, barbecue grills, bird seed or even livestock feed. The calories a bear can consume by picking through one garbage can often surpasses what they can find in an entire day.”

The FWC adds that bears are usually too “shy” to risk contact with humans “but their powerful need to find food can overwhelm this fear.”

This story was originally published June 28, 2019 at 11:46 AM.