Bear cub + red convertible + pizza = trouble

A bear cub sniffed out a barbecued-chicken-and-jalapeño pizza in the back seat of a vintage red Buick convertible at an upper Kingsbury Grade parking lot on Sunday, jolting onlookers and leaving behind a cheesy mess.

About 30 people watched the cub lumber around the Tahoe Village parking lot before it homed in on the Buick and pizza. Frightened swimmers stayed inside the nearby pool area as the bear - ignoring the car's horn, which blew nonstop as the cub pressed the seat into the steering wheel - crawled inside to ferret out the pizza, which was on the floor.

It also apparently washed it down with a swig of a Jack Daniel's mixer, an Absolut vodka and tonic, and a beer taken from a cooler, the vehicle's owner said.

"The bear was loping along in the parking lot and then decides to get inside the car," said resident Jerry Patterson, who took photographs of the bear. "People were screaming at him, the horn was going off, but he was completely unaware. ... He did what he wanted to do, and the people didn't matter."

The bear remained in the 1964 Buick Skylark for a good 20 minutes, and at times put his paws on the dash as if he were holding on for a ride, Patterson said. Motorists and onlookers outside the pool area snapped pictures and moved in for a better look.

"I knew better than to get too close, and so I kept my distance. I respect the bears as wild animals," he said.

The owner of the car, David Ziello of South Lake Tahoe, took the excitement in stride. Once the bear left for a nearby Dumpster, Ziello and his son, David Jr., inspected the car for damage. Fortunately, there wasn't any - sans some cheese and jalapeños on the seats and floor.

But the bear wasn't through yet. He returned to the car from the Dumpster and tried to crawl back in as Ziello was inside.

"At that point, I was thinking of the $5,000 paint job I had done on it last summer and the new interior I was going to be getting sooner than I thought," he said. "I was like, 'OK. The party's over. Move on.'"

The cub stayed in the parking lot for a few more minutes, licked himself, and moved on. Ziello quipped to onlookers how the Fox and Hound - the bar and grill on Kingsbury Grade that made him the large pie - has the best jalapeño pizza in Tahoe.

"They make a great pizza. Even the bears love it," he said.

Fox and Hound Manager Kevin Brent said he's seen his share of bears, including the one that crawled into the Buick. In fact, the same one is believed to have gotten into a breadbox at the restaurant earlier that day.

"I guess the bears find our food pretty tasty and will do anything to get to it," Brent said.

"I swear he ran off with the can from the cooler," Ziello said. "The bear's an alcoholic."

Between a dozen and two dozen bears live between upper and lower Kingsbury, according to Nevada Division of Wildlife's Carl Lackey, who tracks and relocates bears on the Nevada side of the Tahoe basin. The juvenile bear is one of many whose mothers have dispersed them into the wild this season.

While there's not an overall increase in the number of bears in the Kingsbury area, the residential area sees more of them because they've found a primary food source from Dumpsters and people who leave their food and trash in the open.

Lackey warned visitors against keeping food inside their cars because bears will find anyway they can to get to it.

"When you are in bear habitat, regardless of the time of year, you cannot leave any kind of food out - whether it's food inside the car, trash inside or outside your car or pet food. Bears will find it and, in doing so, it is increasing your chances of serious conflict."