A Bear Broke Into a Library on Pooh's 100th Birthday and Went Straight for the Honey

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif., Oct 22 — A black bear walked into the Mammoth Lakes branch of the Mono County Free Libraries early on Wednesday, Oct. 14, and ate the staff's snacks, including a jar of honey, on the same day the world marked 100 years since Winnie-the-Pooh was first published.

The bear got inside at about 6:10 a.m., nearly four hours before the library opened to the public at 10 a.m., Director of Libraries Josef Bopp told FOX26 KMPH.

According to the station, the bear headed straight for the staff snack supply. It ate peanut butter, peach cups, cookies and one jar of honey.

With breakfast finished, the bear took a slow tour of the building. Security cameras recorded it moving through the new releases area and past the reference desk before it left on its own. The Guardian published the security footage, which shows the animal wandering between the shelves and sniffing at the books.

The timing was hard to miss. A.A. Milne's "Winnie-the-Pooh," the book that introduced the world to a small bear with a large appetite for honey, was published on Oct. 14, 1926. The visit fell exactly 100 years later to the day.

Bopp took the break-in in stride. "While we love an enthusiastic patron, and we understand the excitement of the centennial," he said, according to KMPH, "we do remind patrons- and perhaps more importantly our bears- that snacks are not part of the circulating collection."

The library system leaned into the coincidence. It encouraged residents to mark the centennial by visiting any of the seven Mono County Free Libraries locations to borrow a copy of "Winnie-the-Pooh" or other bear-themed titles.

It also used the moment for a serious reminder. Mammoth Lakes, a mountain resort town in the eastern Sierra Nevada, lives alongside a population of wild black bears, and the library urged residents and visitors to keep a safe distance, never approach or feed a bear, use bear-resistant trash containers, and keep car doors and windows closed.

Bear encounters in town can be reported to the Mammoth Lakes Police Department, the station noted, and anyone facing an emergency should call 911.

The visitor came and went before the doors opened for the day, leaving with nothing it had not already eaten.

### What We Know
- A black bear entered the Mammoth Lakes Library at about 6:10 a.m. on Oct. 14, before the 10 a.m. opening.
- It ate peanut butter, peach cups, cookies and one jar of honey from the staff snack supply.
- It wandered through the new releases area and the reference desk, then left on its own.
- "Winnie-the-Pooh" was first published on Oct. 14, 1926.

Reported by FOX26 KMPH, The Guardian

Clown verdict: Late fees will be assessed in honey.

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<small>Photo: Alabama Extension, Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0. Clown emoji: OpenMoji, CC BY-SA 4.0.</small>

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