'BEAR in the house': Colorado man shoots 400-pound beast NINE TIMES after it breaks into his home
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO: It was around 2 o'clock in the night and Ken Maudlin, resident of Steamboat Springs in Colorado, was sleeping peacefully at home. Suddenly, he was jolted from his slumber by the screams of his wife and the barking of his dogs. "There's a bear in the house," she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Leaping out of bed, he grabbed a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun. According to KUSA, the man "shot it as soon as [he] could see it." The 400-pound bear had entered his home and was rummaging through some dog food. Maudlin seized his opportunity and kept shooting until the wounded wild animal collapsed and eventually died, according to a representative of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW).
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Recounting his terrifying encounter with the bear, Maudlin had this to say: "I shot it, and then it charged me, and I kept shooting at it. It backed up and changed directions, busting through our banister railing and landing on the stairs and then it slid down and wound up in a pile at the bottom of the stairs." The bear had seemingly entered the house through the front door that was found to have been left unlocked. Luckily, nobody was injured.
Maudlin acted on his instinct and only thought of protecting his family. Keeping his cool, he attacked the bear before things could take a turn for the worse. "I just recognized that it was a bear, and my immediate thought was to protect my family and to shoot it," he said. The body of the beast was removed by the authorities.
Bears are a common sight in Colorado, with over 12,000 bears inhabiting the mountain town. As such, break-ins are not an unheard-of event for residents. However, shooting and killing bears in the name of self-defense is not too common in the bear-infested region. Still, according to Rachel Gonzales, the CPW spokesperson, Maudlin had a legal right to shoot the bear if he felt threatened. CPW also revealed that this particular male bear was an untagged one. So, there is no information on its involvement in other break-ins.
Residents of Steamboat have been warned of similar incidents. Even Maudlin remarked that he had noticed an increase in the frequency of bear spotting and encounters during the summer of this year, 2022. "There seems to have been a significant escalation of bears entering homes this summer that seems to be more prevalent than previous seasons," he said. "It would be helpful, in my opinion, if CPW could escalate their efforts in trapping these bears." Precautions include locking the doors and windows, securing the trash and upgrading to bear-proof bins and also taking down any bird-feeders installed around the house that may draw these beasts.