VIDEO: Black bear strolls into garage at Connecticut bakery, snags 60 cupcakes

WASHINGTON (TND) — A black bear in a Connecticut town apparently has quite the sweet tooth.

Surveillance footage from Taste by Spellbound in Avon shows the bear strolling into the bakery's open garage door and snagging a box filled with cupcakes before devouring most of them.

The bakery shared the video on social media Saturday and said the owner, Miriam Stephens, along with staff members, including Maureen Williams, were preparing for a delivery and placing goodies into a van parked in a loading garage that's located in the back of the shop when the animal wandered inside.

Maureen was loading it with the last items before I was to leave," Stephens wrote in the post. "She was on the West Hartford side of the van, looked up and saw a bear staring at her from the South Windsor side. All the sudden we hear her screaming bloody murder and then yelling 'there’s a bear in garage!'"

The post noted she then ran to the kitchen "and slammed the door that goes into the loading area and held it tight." Stephens, as well as employees, said they were "stunned" and scared, so they called 911.

In the video, the bear drags a box of cupcakes out of the garage and proceeds to munch on several outside the bakery. Footage shows bakery workers walk around the side of the business before they end up running away.

One of the staff members "then had a brilliant idea to go out the front and get in her car to drive around back and she started beeping her horn like a crazy person. She finally got him out and Maureen ran to the garage to close it as fast as she could."

The bear hides behind a Dumpster and eventually appears to head off.

Police, along with officers from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, responded to the scene by but the bear had already split.

The bakery said no one was harmed and added that the bear was not hurt. The cupcakes -- and "a bunch of coconut cake" -- were the only casualties.

We all have had a good laugh about it at this point and think the bears are cute," according to the post.

There has been a recent uptick in bear sightings throughout the area, as well as across the nation, with environmental officials warning the public that bears often go after bird seed as a meal.

Residents have also been advised not to leave small pets unattended, and bring in dog or cat food that might be kept outside, as bears are looking for a food source.

There have also been a few bear attacks.

A 74-year-old woman suffered bites to her arms and legs last month when she was attacked by a bear while walking her dog in a Hartford suburb, which marked the first such attack this year. There were two attacks last year, including one in October where a 10-year-old boy was mauled in a backyard.

The frequency and severity of bear-human interactions is increasing,” Paul Copleman, a spokesman forConnecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said Friday.

Statistics compiled by the department show that there were a record 67 reports of bears entering Connecticut homes in 2022. The previous record was 45 in 2020.

A bear cub wandered into a neighborhood near downtown Hartford and climbed up a tree on Friday. Police blocked off the street as authorities decided how to handle the situation. The bear was still in the tree later than afternoon.

Wildlife officials said adult black bears typically weigh 100 to 300 pounds, but males can exceed 500 pounds.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: The Associated Press contributed to this report.