A California couple is cleaning up the mess after an intruder broke into their home for the second time in a year. They know who the perpetrator is, but the law won’t protect them in this case because the intruder was a bear.

Lane Sykes and Carole Scofield have lived in South Lake Tahoe for more than two decades, and this latest run-in with the bear has them on edge.

“It’s a discomforting feeling to think, ‘Oh dear, do I dare leave the house?’” Scofield told KOLO.

The couple left their home for a little more than an hour Wednesday evening, and the bear managed to squeeze through a small window and help itself to a free dinner in their kitchen. The couple said all their doors were locked, but they left a small window open for ventilation because of the rising temperatures.

“I still couldn’t understand how a 7-foot bear [weighing] 300 pounds could fit through that,” Sykes said. “I have never thought a bear could get in through that window.”

The bear’s scavenging was caught on camera. The footage shows it making several trips while the couple was gone.

Scofield said the same bear broke down their front door just last year. She hopes others learn from their experience and close all entry points in their homes.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife told KOLO that although bears usually turn to garbage cans for food, they have expanded their scavenging further.

“[At] some point in the bear’s life, they gained some type of food reward by breaking into a cabin or a home, so they remember that,” Lesa Johnston with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said. “So, the behavior is likely to be repeated.”

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