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Beer can next to black bear
Bears around the United States are currently gearing up to wind down for the winter, and they’ll eat and drink basically anything they can get their paws on. That includes one in Florida that made its way into a fridge on a patio it invaded and washed down a meal with a boozy iced tea.
Bears probably aren’t the first potentially dangerous form of wildlife that springs to mind when you’re talking about Florida. However, it is home to an estimated 4,050 black bears, which primarily reside in the northwest, northeast, and southwest corners of the Sunshine State.
Attacks on humans tend to be few and far between. There have been fewer than 50 reported incidents in the past two decades, and there had never been a recorded fatality before an 89-year-old man passed away from injuries he sustained in an assault in 2025.
As is the case with any region where the mammals roam, Floridians who live in Bear Country do need to take precautions if they want to reduce the risk of an encounter. That includes securing sources of sustenance, which one family in Naples failed to do before one of them took advantage.
A bear snatched a Sun Cruiser from a fridge after roaming onto a patio in Florida
People who live in colder climates don’t really have to worry about bears in the winter due to hibernation, which the animals enter in the wake of a period known as “hyperphagia,” where they spend months eating as much as they can to pack on as many pounds as possible ahead of that extended stretch of deep sleep.
Florida’s climate throws an interesting twist in that routine, as some bears in the Sunshine State forgo hibernation entirely while others opt for a shorter (and less intense) respite than their relatives to the north. However, they still engage in the same binges when the fall rolls around.
According to WSVN, that includes one that was recently filmed taking advantage of what it discovered after wandering onto a property in Naples last weekend, where it spent 30 minutes chowing down on the contents of a trash can it tipped over and made its way onto the patio of the home Celine Emerson shares with her husband.
A security camera captured the bear opening a fridge on the porch, and Emerson said it treated itself to a Sun Cruiser while washing down its meal with some iced tea mixed with vodka.
Bears rock.