Injured bear cub wanders into downtown Colorado Springs pizza sh - KOAA.com | Continuous News | Colorado Springs and Pueblo

A hungry black bear cub with an injured paw found its way into a downtown Colorado Springs pizza shop Monday afternoon, causing quite a commotion for employees, customers, and passers-by in the downtown area.

The bear was initially spotted just after the main lunch rush near Palmer High School downtown, according to a school resource officer.  Eventually, it found its way in a propped-open door at Louie's Pizza at Tejon Street and Boulder Street.  "She just hung out there in the back for an hour," said Louie's employee Kayla Fortner.  The cub made its way to the back corner of a prep area behind the main kitchen, where it snacked on icing for the parlor's dessert menu items before falling asleep.

"We asked what was up and they said there was a bear in there and it was eating all the icing," said customer Andy Shinholt.  "He was soft and he had icing all over him.  He was eating all the icing."

Staff at Louie's called police and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which sent out officers to tranquilize the cub so that it could be safely removed from the restaurant.  A CPW spokesman says the cub had been orphaned by its mother and had an open wound on one of its paws.  It was also found to be underweight.  The cub will be relocated to a rehabilitation facility to bring it back to proper weight and to heal its paw wound before being released back in the wild, the spokesman said.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife reminds everyone that this is prime bear season in Colorado, when bears are fattening up for hibernation and looking for easy sources of food.  Be 'Bear Aware' by clicking the following link: http://cpw.state.co.us/learn/Pages/LivingwithWildlifeWildBears.aspx