Petition: Save 500-Pound Black Bear Serial Burglar In Lake Tahoe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CA — More than 1,300 people have signed a petition to save Hank the Tank, a massive, 500-pound black bear who gained national notoriety — and a death sentence — after he damaged dozens of properties around Lake Tahoe.

The giant bear, known by residents as Hank the Tank, has eluded capture for more than seven months, according to Peter Tira, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Last week, he broke into yet another home in his latest snack search.

The bear's rap sheet includes 33 cases of extensive property damage, and he forcefully entered at least 28 homes in and near the Tahoe Keys.

"This bear is extremely food-habituated and has used its immense size and strength to break in and through front doors and garage doors," wildlife officials said. "There have been, at last count, 102 individual reports of local police responses to this bear, including multiple hazing events to discourage the bear from breaking into homes and seeking human food sources."

Among the efforts: hazing the bear with paintballs, bean bags, sirens and stun guns, The New York Times reported. All to no avail.

“It’s easier to find leftover pizza than to go in the forest,” Tira told The Times on Sunday.

It might seem obvious, but what makes the bear a problem is that he is, well, 500 pounds. Black bears in the western United States weigh, on average, closer to 100 to 300 pounds. Hank's immense size is in large part due to his diet.

“He didn’t get fat like that eating berries and grubs,” Ann Bryant, executive director of the Bear League, a wildlife rescue service told The Times.

"It's pretty frightening," Tira told SF Gate.

Furthermore, the break-ins continued over the winter — an indicator he didn't hibernate.

State fish and wildlife officials launched a special trapping effort for the broad-shouldered behemoth in the Tahoe Keys area of South Lake Tahoe. The traps, the wildlife officials said, represent official state business to capture a specific and “severely food-habituated bear," meaning Hank no longer fears people and associates humans with access to food. The bear is responsible for more than 150 incident reports in the region, which straddles Northern California and Nevada.

On Friday, he broke into a home in the Tahoe Keys neighborhood, according to CBS Sacramento. In that burglary, he bashed through a window and squeezed into the home on Catalina Drive. The residents were inside during the frightening home invasion. Police were called and banged on the outside of the home until Hank made his getaway through a back door, disappearing into a wooded area.

A homeowners association agreed last week to allow state wildlife workers to capture Hank, whose known aliases are also Jake, Yogi or simply Big Guy. But it won't be easy — bear-trapping is usually more likely in the woods. Previous efforts have failed.

Now, some people want to save the bear from euthanasia.

More than 1,300 people signed this Change.org petition to save Hank.

"There is a 500 lb bear in the South Lake Tahoe keys area that is causing a few problems and they want to euthanize him or her," the petition reads. "I want to petition to stop the euthanization of this bear, there are other options that can be done and there's an offer by a sanctuary in Colorado to transport the bear there. Please join in the fight to save this 500 lb bear from losing its life in Southern lake Tahoe keys area."

Hundreds signed a second petition on the site that asks Gov. Gavin Newsom to step in.

"Hank is a hungry bear who has learned through the demolition and industrialization of his home that the easiest way to get food is to break in to peoples houses and steal it," organizer Julia P. wrote.

She later adds: "Stop Hank from being murdered in his own home," and asks that he be relocated to a sanctuary.

Until recently, the Keys neighborhood banned residents from securing garbage in "unsightly" bear boxes.

"Now they've got bashed in garage doors, broken kitchen doors, broken glass windows, and garbage strewn all around all summer long," Bryant told the Nevada Current. "That's not unsightly?"

South Lake Tahoe police posted photos on Instagram of Hank's latest break-in on Catalina Drive and said the bear is trying "harder and harder to prove to the Keys HOA that they need to allow bear boxes."

"He broke into a secured home, through the small window in the photo, and somehow squeezed inside," police said.

After his latest break-in, officials collected a sample of Hank's DNA to ensure they nab the right burglar. Should he be captured, officials said he could be relocated to accredited facilities such as zoos and wildlife sanctuaries.

"You relocate it to the wilderness, and they starve because they're not used to hunting for food," Tira said.

Killing the bear is hopefully a last resort, said Joby Cefalu, a board member with the homeowners association.

"Nobody on our board took lightly the situation of depredation," Cefalu told the Los Angeles Times. "We're meant to coexist. Unfortunately, this is a human problem."

Officials may also have to overcome sabotage efforts by residents who don't want the bear killed.

The Nevada Current reported that after wildlife personnel set a trap in the Keys to capture and destroy the bruin, some in the neighborhood tried to sabotage those efforts, with residents taking turns standing watch to scare away the bear. Others played music. Someone even spray-painted "Bear Killer" on a government trap.

This isn't the first time Lake Tahoe has had troublesome black bears.

In 2018, California Patch reported on a large black bear that had a hankering for sweets that terrorized a family's home for months. The family posted several videos of the intruder on YouTube in which the bear reaches over the kitchen sink and pulls itself through the window, knocking over any dishes and plates in its path. The animal then knocks over a large bag of M&M's and proceeds to slurp up fallen candies off the counter. The bear eats a candy bar before slipping back out the window.

Black bears are recognized as an important component of California's ecosystems. The animal has been classified as a game mammal since 1948, and data shows the state's bear population has increased in recent years.

This includes areas where they haven't been seen in 50 years, such as along the Central Coast and Transverse mountain ranges of Southern California. Between 25,000 and 30,000 black bears are now estimated to occupy 52,000 square miles in California.