September 2, 1998 Missoulian article: What do you do with a bear in the sink? Vern Reynolds opted to run it off but the bear wouldn't stay gone By MICHAEL JAMISON.

LINDBERGH LAKE - Someone was snacking in Vern Reynolds' kitchen, and when Vern showed up, the someone was still there.

"I mean, what do you do when you find a bear standing at your kitchen sink?" an exasperated Reynolds asked. "Me, I just yelled, 'What the hell are you doing in here?"

According to Reynolds, the small black bear has "been a pest around here for most of the summer."

Reynolds is former owner of Missoula's Western Montana Lighting, and has spent his summer with his wife at their Lindbergh Lake cabin.

"That bear's been in at least four other cabins," Reynolds said. "He's rattled around on everything here at our place, but he's never tried to get in before."

The problem started, Reynolds said, "when I did something stupid. It was so nice and warm, I just left the kitchen door open for the night."

That door, he said, opens onto a large screened porch, which was closed and latched. At about 9 p.m. Monday, Reynolds' wife said she heard something shuffling around at the other end of the cabin. He went to the small hack porch, where the bear had been seen before, but the bruin was nowhere in sight.

"I came back in, and here I am walking into the kitchen to check the big porch and there's this bear, standing on its hind legs with its front paws up on the sink having a little evening snack," Reynolds said. "I tell you, that kind of startled me.

"It looked at me and I looked at it and screamed. It took three bounds, went over a picnic table on the porch and dove straight through the screen. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen."

The bear, Reynolds said, had opened the bread drawer and stolen a loaf, leaving the empty wrapper and some crumbs on the floor He had lapped up some Jello powder, and was working on a jar of kitchen grease when the feast was interrupted.

It was quite an experience," Reynolds said. "It's not every day you find a bear in your kitchen They're so crafty and quiet. He ripped the screen, walked across the porch, came up the steps, across the kitchen, opened a drawer, had some bread and ate some Jello and we never knew he was there."

The bear, after diving through the screen to freedom, circled the house, and within 15 minutes was trying to climb in through a kitchen window. Reynolds ran him off, only to find him on the back porch, tipping over empty garbage cans and playing with kindling bundles.

Again, Reynolds ran the bear from the house, and again the bear returned to stomp across the deck.

Finally, a Missoula County sheriff's deputy arrived just after midnight, and spent well over an hour searching the neighborhood for the bear. The rogue diner, however, had vanished without leaving a trail.

"That deputy wasn't gone 10 minutes before that bear was back on our deck," Reynolds said. "I went out to take care of it myself. I had some big pots and pans and boy, I made one hell of a racket."

State wildlife officials said they will attempt to capture the bear, but the trap had not arrived by Tuesday

"If they don't show up with that cage soon," Reynolds said, "I think I might just button this place up tight and head back to Missoula for a couple days. At least down there I won't find any bears in my kitchen.