Video: Bear breaks into Florida home, eats Easter candy

ESTERO, FL -- A woman called 911 Friday after she found a bear in her house that had eaten some of her Easter candy, according to WZVN-TV.

Community residents told WZVN-TV that they had recently seen the bear in the neighborhood.

"It almost sounded like the Venetian blinds were off track, so it was like tick, tick, tick, tick, " Caroline Tidwell said. "Then we heard the furniture moving around."

WZVN-TV was told that those sounds were being made by a 300- to 400-pound black bear.

"He was making slobbering noises and bear noises," Tidwell said.

At first she thought it was her husband getting ready for work. Tidwell said she was afraid the the bear was eating one of her cats, which were hiding on top of the kitchen cabinets safe and sound.

"I could've literally reached out and touched him," Tidwell said. "I said 'there's a bear in the house. Wake up right now.'"

The next morning the bear showed up again.

"We opened the window and just banged on the pot and said 'go away bear' and he went away," Tidwell said.

Tidwell said she feels blessed and lucky because this could've been a lot worse.

"It went boom! Came out here and the screen was torn back," Dennis Anderson, a neighbor of Tidwell's, said. "This is the first time this has happened. We've heard about it before, but frankly my wife was more afraid of alligators."

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, bear sightings are typical this time of year. The commission has proposed that about 275 black bears be killed in mid-October in an effort to reduce the risk of dangerous interactions between bears and Florida's growing population. The state could open its first black bear hunting season in two decades under a set of new rules, which are expected to be reviewed next week.