A bear with a nose for trash tore through a metal garage door and made off with several bags of garbage early Thursday in the Edgemont Ranch subdivision northeast of Durango.
The bruin gained entry by breaking a small window at the top of the garage door and tearing away metal panels one-by-one.
"I was amazed at the amount of damage and the ability, strength-wise, to pull it off the rail like it was tinfoil," said John Thomas, who lives one door down.
Chris Gage, the occupant, was on vacation in Texas. Her son, John Gage, who lives about eight miles away in Tween Lakes subdivision, received a phone call from his mom asking him to check on the damage.
"I expected it might have busted out a window and pushed its way through," he said. "I didn't think it would shred it like a can opener."
Neighbors said they heard dogs barking during the middle of the night, but they didn't hear anything like a bear tearing its way through the garage door. It is the only garage door with glass windows on the cul-de-sac, Thomas said. Inside the garage, the bear opened a freezer door, rummaged through a sack of rotten potatoes and made off with three bags of trash, he said.
"He took them to the back of the house and went through them there," Thomas said.
Neighbors said they are disturbed by the bear's apparent size and disregard for private property.
"Everybody here at the moment is a little bit shaken as to how he went about doing this thing," Thomas said. "I'm sure there won't be any open windows at night anymore."
Pam Leininger, who lives across the street, said residents know to keep their trash indoors overnight, but even that doesn't seem to be enough.
"Everybody's a little nervous about what do we do with our trash when even in a garage they can rip it open like that," Leininger said.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife has received reports of a bear rooting around and getting into houses during the past couple of days in that area, about five miles northeast of Durango, said agency spokesman Joe Lewandowski. The agency responded Thursday morning and dropped off a trap in hopes of catching the menacing ursine, he said. The trap is baited with something such as road kill or dead fish, he said.
"It's not unusual for a bear to break through a window, claw through a wall or get into a car," Lewandowski said. "It doesn't surprise me that a bear could do this kind of damage to a metal garage door."
He reminded people to take their trash out regularly. If food items such as chicken bones can be frozen before trash day, residents should consider doing so to reduce odors.
"If people see a bear in their neighborhood, they should also make it feel uncomfortable - yell at it, throw things at it, bang pots together," Lewandowski said.
Gage said he has already ordered a new garage door.
"This time, we'll get one without windows, for sure," he said.
shane@durangoherald.com