Animals and humans are practically the same. Both breathe, eat, sleep and shop at their local markets. After recent events in Southern Arizona involving a black bear and a grocery store, some can come to the same conclusion.

In small Oro Valley, Arizona, a small black bear was spotted pawing at the front entrance, laundering around the store isles, and running a muck. While the bear’s presence did startle some shoppers, it was reported that the bear caused no real damage to the store. If anything, it only caused a commotion as it ran up and down the isles. Once authorities had arrived on the scene, the bear was gone. Even though the sightings of black bears in that area have been increasing, they have never seen them so close to town. In fact, authorities claimed that they are spotted in the desert more than in local areas.

Cases like this are becoming more common due to the easy access stores provide to its customers. For example, in Aberdeen, Scotland, 2021, a bystander recorded a video of a seagull seamlessly entering a convenience store and stealing a tuna sandwich. The video went viral on Tik Tok, causing the internet to name the seagull “Gus”. 

Like Gus, another animal wandered into a store and stole a few products; however, this time it was a 500-pound adult bear. Thankfully, this bear had a particular sweet tooth that could only be cured by a Three Musketeers candy bar and not a person.

While these incidents seem like silly pranks that animals love to play on us, they can still cause costly damages. Animals obviously have no awareness of the messes they make. If a bear wants a pack of beef jerky, it will tear up the food rack to get it. Not to mention, if these animals ever felt threatened in the stores, they could do a lot more harm than just steal products. It might be time to cut these animals off from our stores with better security measures, because the last thing we need is a shopaholic bear.