WATCH – A bear crashed a Colorado farmers market and went straight for the pastries

Somewhere in Aspen, Colorado right now, there’s a bear lying in a sunny meadow, patting its belly and thinking about the best Saturday of its life.

A black bear wandered into the Aspen Saturday Market over the weekend and went straight to a bakery booth, helping itself to fresh bread and pastries while shoppers stood back and watched. Video that has spread all over social media shows the bear digging into the baked goods with no interest in the crowd around it. It wasn’t there to browse the jewelry or the local honey. It came for the carbs, and it got them. Eventually, officers used nonlethal bean bag rounds to get the bear to leave. So it got breakfast and a stern talking-to, the way most of us leave brunch.

Honestly, you can’t blame the bear for its taste. The Aspen Saturday Market has been running on Hopkins and Hyman avenues and Hunter Street since 1998, with about 75 vendors selling Colorado-grown produce, meats, jams and baked goods. Thousands of people shop it on a typical Saturday. This bear just skipped the line, didn’t pay and went for the best table first.

The timing isn’t random. Bears across Colorado are in their pre-hibernation eating frenzy right now, and the ongoing drought has cut into their natural food supply. That’s pushing them into towns, where the snacks are easier to find. It’s been a busy few weeks for Colorado bears acting like they pay property taxes. One climbed out of a garbage truck in Castle Rock, and the town of Aspen’s own website calls the area “prime bear habitat,” with bears most active from late April through early November. Add in the Waymo that drove into a Denver farmers market, and Colorado’s farmers markets are now officially being crashed by both robots and wildlife.

If you’re heading to the market for its final Saturday this season, Oct. 3 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., get there early. The sourdough apparently goes fast.