An Italian Bear Bakery Bandit!

Roccaraso is a town in central Italy, in the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region. Recently it's become known for a burglarizing bear who loves cookies! Here's the story of the Bear Bakery Bandit!

(Image; Juan Carrito walks the town of Roccaraso. Credit: UK Metro News)

Rare brown bear famed for midnight feast after bakery break-in has been captured

Kirsten Robertson Metro UK News Tuesday 8 Mar 2022  

A bear named Juan Carrito, with a history of breaking into bakeries in Italy and stealing biscuits has been captured Taken without permission Juan the bear, who enjoys walks through the town of Roccaraso, is behind bars following the bakery break in A two-year-old bear has been captured after a short-lived life of crime across an Italian town.

The animal, who locals named Juan Carrito, had become something of a local celebrity in the ski resort town of Roccaraso.

He was frequently spotted swigging out of public water fountains, playing with local dogs and even sampling delights from people’s bins. The bear would even abide by the rules of the road – in one video he can be seen waiting at a stop sign during an evening stroll. His name translates to ‘John Wheelbarrow.’

In December, Juan ransacked a bakery in the centre of town. He gobbled an entire afternoon’s worth of biscuits before fleeing to the forest – leaving a trail of crumbs and metal trays in his wake. Juan’s biscuit heist was ultimately one step too far, and sealed his fate as a menace to society in the eyes of the law.

The outlaw bear was tranquilised and banished to a remote area of the Abruzzo national park. But the bemused bear simply walked back to Roccaraso. As a result, the authorities made the difficult decision to capture the two-year-old once again. Juan has now been taken to an enclosure for ‘problem’ animals in the Palena bear reserve in the province of Chieti.

Lucio Zazzara, the president of the Maiella national park, told the Guardian: ‘The intervention was necessary to protect the bear and keep it away from potentially dangerous situations and, in general, from an environment where it has been feeding almost exclusively on waste for too long.

‘Now the priority is to work on its return to nature by implementing the procedures that will enable this to happen.’

Hundreds have signed a petition against the bear’s capture. ‘Juan Carrito never harmed anyone,’ maintains Luigi Liberatore, the Roccaraso resident who started the petition.

Juan is a marsican brown bear, of which there are only 50 left in the wild. Their numbers have reduced as a result of road accidents and deliberate