Three of the weekend's stranger dispatches involve a bear with a sweet tooth, a fortune in the floor, and an otter on the mend.
In Colorado, a young bear tore through a window screen and let itself into the Colorado Cherry Company building on Highway 36 north of Lyons, making straight for the pastry. Employee Sielh Avila described the entry to CBS News Colorado. "He went straight for the pies by the register," Avila said, recalling earlier that "he tore right through that. He opened the window and he climbed right in" [1]. The damage was limited. General Manager Bailey Sandahl said essentially nothing was broken except the pie, describing "an eaten pie on the ground" and "little blueberry paw prints on the glass" [1]. The staff are not laughing it off. "A fed bear is a dead bear so we're doing everything we can to help fix that, so making sure triple checking all the doors are locked up at night," Sandahl said, in what CBS reports has been a record-high year for bear sightings and conflicts in Colorado amid drought [1]. The same location lost 28 pies to a bear back in 2015 [1].
Across the Atlantic, construction workers in Dendermonde, in Belgium's East Flanders, got a very different surprise. While laying a sewer pipe at a building owned by the charity CAW East-Flanders, they uncovered roughly 50 gold bars and piles of coins bricked into the cellar walls, worth an estimated 9 million euros, about $10.4 million, CBS News reported [2]. "We stumbled across it while carrying out groundwork to lay a pipe for the sewerage system," a worker identified as Kobe said [2]. Police moved fast, saying the haul was "inventoried and secured as quickly as possible in a high-security vault belonging to the federal government services," and told would-be treasure hunters that a visit is "truly pointless" [2]. Who legally owns the gold is unresolved; CBS reported it was not clear who would be considered the legal owner of the trove [2].
Back in California, an otter struck by a car in Vacaville is expected to pull through. The animal was hit near Leisure Town Road and Foxborough Road and taken to the Solano Wildlife Rescue and Education Center, which said it suffered head trauma including swelling around the brain and a small abrasion on its chin but no broken bones [3]. It was stable Friday. "As soon as the swelling goes down around his brain, we think he will be ready to go," the center said, estimating release in about seven to 10 days [3].
None of these is fully settled. The bear that found the pies could pay for the habit with its life if it keeps coming back, which is why the Lyons staff are checking the locks. The Belgian gold sits in a federal vault while officials work out who, if anyone, gets to keep it. The otter is not released yet. For one weekend, though, the tally reads: blueberry pie lost, $10.4 million found, and one otter on the way back.
