Bear encounter stole my backpack

[henry g wilgo]

woods holes shelter 11 pm pack with no food,,hung on outside wall..bear removed pack from nail hook on outside wall.may 26 ...
Unbelievably found pack 6 am next morning..no damage...not even to the loop of the pack...about 150 yards away...

Bears smart in georgia,,,must have lifted it clean off the nail..
Henry from boston...

Need info to contact ron and son12 years old,,,from south carolina
son's name ..........isiaha

[hikerboy57]

how do you know it was a bear?

[Don H]

how do you know it was a bear?

Fingerprints?

Or maybe security camera footage?

Bear will be featured on America's Most Wanted next week

[Kookork]

how do you know it was a bear?

Do you have a better suspect in your mind?

I say if it was a bear ( which seems it was) it shows that bears are getting bolder but at the same time smarter so they just are hungry/curious not aggressive.

[hikerboy57]

Do you have a better suspect in your mind?

I say if it was a bear ( which seems it was) it shows that bears are getting bolder but at the same time smarter so they just are hungry/curious not aggressive.

i say it wasnt a bear.
they come after food.i cant see it dragging a foodless pack all that way without any damage at all to the pack. if it smelled like food, it would have been damaged. i dont think they are getting either bolder or smarter.theyre smart to begin with. the "boldness" is a loss of fear of humans.neither seems likely.
why would you think "it seems it was"
he also says he found the pack 150 yards away. how did he find it?on the trail? did he do a circular sweep of the area till he found it?
a lot of information missing here.

lets all get scared of bears again.

[Kookork]

i say it wasnt a bear.
they come after food.i cant see it dragging a foodless pack all that way without any damage at all to the pack. if it smelled like food, it would have been damaged. i dont think they are getting either bolder or smarter.theyre smart to begin with. the "boldness" is a loss of fear of humans.neither seems likely.
why would you think "it seems it was"
he also says he found the pack 150 yards away. how did he find it?on the trail? did he do a circular sweep of the area till he found it?
a lot of information missing here.

lets all get scared of bears again.

You are smarter than this HB. You circled my question but did not answer it. Do you have a better suspect brother? just with as much as we know already?

[hikerboy57]

You are smarter than this HB. You circled my question but did not answer it. Do you have a better suspect brother? just with as much as we know already?

there is no suspect. the story is lacking too many pertinant details.coulda been a biped.sasquatch.alien abduction.
his pack seemingly was found 150 yards away. how it got wherever is just conjecture.im still waiting for my own response from the op.why did he think it was a bear?
why do you think it was a bear?

[Turk6177]

I don't any food in any of my backpack pockets unless it is in a ziplock bag. Do you think some of your trash or food could have put an odor on your backpack?

[Kookork]

Then it should have been a thief. what thief steels a backpack 11 pm off the wall of a shelter then leave it 150 yards away intact?

[atmilkman]

Then it should have been a thief. what thief steels a backpack 11 pm off the wall of a shelter then leave it 150 yards away intact?

Ultra light thief.

[hikerboy57]

Ultra light thief.

good point. the ul police may have been out that night and decided the op's pack was too heavy,he didnt say however that he found a golite jam in its stead, so im not sure of that explanation either

[no-name]

Ultra light thief.

Ha ha ha I gotta go change my depends after reading this!

[hikerboy57]

Then it should have been a thief. what thief steels a backpack 11 pm off the wall of a shelter then leave it 150 yards away intact?

kookork, its a story, just a story. and without more details, its hard to swallow.it would be hard for a bear to carrry a pack ,thinking there was food inside,and not do any damage to the pack whatsoever,certainly would have been digging through the pockets if he scented food..
perhaps the op can enlighten us as to where exactly the pack was found, whether there was bearsign around or any other evidence that would let him to conclude it was a bear. all we know is he woke up to find his pack 150 yards away from wear he hung it.he never said he saw either a bear or any sign of bear.
innocent until proven guilty.

[mattmais]

kookork, its a story, just a story. and without more details, its hard to swallow.it would be hard for a bear to carrry a pack ,thinking there was food inside,and not do any damage to the pack whatsoever,certainly would have been digging through the pockets if he scented food..
perhaps the op can enlighten us as to where exactly the pack was found, whether there was bearsign around or any other evidence that would let him to conclude it was a bear. all we know is he woke up to find his pack 150 yards away from wear he hung it.he never said he saw either a bear or any sign of bear.
innocent until proven guilty.

im sure it was a chipmunk, maybe a rabbit.What other animal would be able to carry the pack....come on!

[hikerboy57]

im sure it was a chipmunk, maybe a rabbit.What other animal would be able to carry the pack....come on!

ummm...human?

[kythruhiker]

Hopefully it was 150' in the correct direction, free slackpacks are the best.

[Malto]

im sure it was a chipmunk, maybe a rabbit.What other animal would be able to carry the pack....come on!

A deer. I know a thru hiker that had a trekking pole stolen by a deer. It wanted the salt in the grips. A pack could also have salt and get carried off by a deer. I know another hiker that had a bandana stolen by a squirrel, it wasn't recovered. And folks are worried about bears?

[jj2044]

. what thief steels a backpack 11 pm off the wall of a shelter then leave it 150 yards away intact?

A thief that picked a pack with really crappy gear?? lol

[Bronk]

Then it should have been a thief. what thief steels a backpack 11 pm off the wall of a shelter then leave it 150 yards away intact?

Maybe a thief who dropped it and ran because they thought they were going to get caught. If I were looking to steal high dollar equipment I'd find a shelter just a few miles from a road crossing and hike in at night while everyone would be asleep. Someone watching shelter journals could easily predict who/what/how many would be at the given shelter. You could even wait at road crossings and give people trail magic in order to case what kind of equipment they had.

Does it make sense to anyone that a bear could carry a pack 150 yards, presumably with either its claws or teeth, without doing any damage? Why would it take a pack with no food smells? If there were food smells, why wouldn't it rip the pack open looking for the food?

Maybe it was just somebody playing a practical joke, trying to make people think it was a bear. A jokester wouild make sure to place the pack where they knew it would be found easily. A jerk who really wanted to screw with you would put it somewhere they thought you might not find it at all. Did the guy piss anybody off recently, and were they at the shelter or even just possibly in the area that night?

When I was at basic training in the Army our drill sgt used to go through the barracks after we'd left in the morning and if your bed wasn't made to his standards he'd toss the whole thing and make a mess of it. One guy in particular had his bunk tossed more than once, and it just infuriated him. It was funny to watch his reaction when he returned at the end of a long day to find his bunk messed up. So we started racing back to the barracks so we could get there before him and toss his bunk even if the drill sgt hadn't done it. After 8 weeks the guy never figured out that we were doing it and there were 7 of us in on the gag.

[Kookork]

Maybe a thief who dropped it and ran because they thought they were going to get caught. If I were looking to steal high dollar equipment I'd find a shelter just a few miles from a road crossing and hike in at night while everyone would be asleep. Someone watching shelter journals could easily predict who/what/how many would be at the given shelter. You could even wait at road crossings and give people trail magic in order to case what kind of equipment they had.

Does it make sense to anyone that a bear could carry a pack 150 yards, presumably with either its claws or teeth, without doing any damage? Why would it take a pack with no food smells? If there were food smells, why wouldn't it rip the pack open looking for the food?

Maybe it was just somebody playing a practical joke, trying to make people think it was a bear. A jokester wouild make sure to place the pack where they knew it would be found easily. A jerk who really wanted to screw with you would put it somewhere they thought you might not find it at all. Did the guy piss anybody off recently, and were they at the shelter or even just possibly in the area that night?

When I was at basic training in the Army our drill sgt used to go through the barracks after we'd left in the morning and if your bed wasn't made to his standards he'd toss the whole thing and make a mess of it. One guy in particular had his bunk tossed more than once, and it just infuriated him. It was funny to watch his reaction when he returned at the end of a long day to find his bunk messed up. So we started racing back to the barracks so we could get there before him and toss his bunk even if the drill sgt hadn't done it. After 8 weeks the guy never figured out that we were doing it and there were 7 of us in on the gag.

You mentioned some nice plausible explanations for the human scenario. I like it . But , there is a but here. Is that shelter close to a busy road?

Did he ( a 70 years old man have any dough with some hikers?

The bear has been seen around the time of incident , so who dares to go 100 yards in the wood in the middle of the night to prank a mature hiker?for what reason?

Still your scenarios are plausible alternative if the BEAR was nor around. Right?