Man refuses to share house with bear.

At about l0 p.m. on August 31, John Tietbohl of Bachelor Gulch, Colorado, walked his fiancee to his vehicle parked in front of his house. After he shut her door, he began to walk to the driver's door and came face-to-face with a 150-pound black bear. It was in the driveway coming directly toward him. He immediately drew his 9mm pistol and shot the bear, scaring it away.

According to the September 4 Vail Daily, Tietbohl asserted that he "had to shoot the bear. It was determined to get inside [his] house." Previously, the bear had continuously prowled around Tietbohl's house for five or six weeks, and it had even managed to enter his house on three occasions by either pushing open a sliding glass door or by opening a latched door by pushing down on a levered handle.

The problem was so bad that on the night of the shooting, Tietbohl and his fiancee were going to stay at a hotel because they were afraid that the bear would enter the house while they were sleeping. "Bear scat," Tietbohl said, "on the front door step or the patio was a daily occurrence." Prior to shooting the bear, Tietbohl and others had attempted to use non-lethal means to discourage the bear: wildlife officers told him that they would bring him some rubber buckshot to use on the bear, but it hadn't arrived yet.

And earlier on the day of the shooting, Bachelor Gulch public safety patrollers had tried throughout the day to scare the bear away by repeatedly hitting it with blasts of pepper spray, but the bear would not leave the area. Officials speculate that the bear was looking for food because natural sources of food are scarce this year.

Wildlife officials tracked the wounded bear, but couldn't locate it. "The Colorado Division of Wildlife is investigating the incident to decide what, if any, charges will be filed."