I always love a fun trick-or-treating story that ends well. Out in the snowy region of Alaska, one bandit bear decided trick-or-treating was too much work and went straight for the candy bowl. Around 2 a.m. this past Monday, a black bear wandered into a hospital on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage, where it found a bucket of donated Halloween treats and stopped for a midnight snack. Unfortunately for one hospital visitor, the bear chose a hallway with very few easy escape routes.
Sherri Warnke was at the hospital helping her mother settle in after a transfer when she encountered the bear in the E/R corridor. Warnke, who does not work at the hospital, estimated the animal was about 30 feet away when it emerged from a side hallway.
“And if I was like 15 seconds faster, we would have ran into each other,” Warnke told KTUU.
The situation was particularly unnerving according to AZ Family, because the doors along the hallway required a badge to open. Warnke didn’t have one, leaving her with a single practical option: slowly back away toward an exit roughly 60 yards behind her and hope the bear hadn’t noticed her.
Then the bear found something more interesting than its surroundings. Warnke initially caught a whiff of what she thought was trash, but doctors later told her the animal had discovered a bucket of donated Halloween candy. The unexpected snack gave Warnke and the other people in the building a little breathing room while they worked out what to do.
An announcement soon warned everyone that a bear was inside the hospital. Several doctors then came down the hallway, apparently hoping to get pictures of their unusual visitor. Warnke wasn’t quite as eager to get closer.
“They wanted pictures,” she said. “But approaching a bear that’s having this dessert is not my first option.”
Warnke began recording the encounter herself. In one video, she can be heard calling out, “Exit plan, guys, because the bear thinks you’re going to steal his food.” Her concern was understandable. Even if someone had a badge, she worried about the delay between swiping it and getting through a locked door if the bear suddenly became aggressive. For the moment, though, the animal seemed more interested in its stolen treats than the people around it.
Hospital staff eventually helped Warnke leave through a back route. She didn’t see how the bear got out of the building, but staff later told her it had exited the same way it came in. When she returned the following day, Warnke noticed that a door leading into the main part of the hospital had been closed. An emergency department staffer told her it had been shut because of the bear and showed her a photograph of the animal standing at the same front counter where she had been standing. Staff joked that the bear had been checking in.
Despite the close encounter, Warnke said she isn’t easily rattled by wildlife. She was born and raised in Alaska and describes herself as a mountain runner. She had encountered bears before, but finding one inside a hospital was a new experience. Warnke also thought the animal looked well fed as it approached the season when bears prepare to hibernate.
Afterward, she told a friend that the bear had simply been out trick-or-treating. As she put it, “and good thing he chose the treat and not for me to do a trick. Considering the circumstances, that sounds like a pretty good outcome for everyone involved. The bear got its Halloween candy, the hospital staff got an unexpected story to tell, and Warnke made it out without becoming part of the evening’s menu.
