Bear breaks into Tahoe ice cream shop, swipes gallons of chocolate chip cookie dough

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A four-legged intruder with a sweet tooth broke into a Tahoe café and made off with three gallons of ice cream. 

Beth Moxley of "Tahoe Time Ice Cream and Coffee Shop" at Kings Beach got video of the suspect.

He's a well-known figure in the community: a four-year-old bear named Cinnamon.

What we know:

Moxley said on Sunday afternoon, the business left the backdoor open during cleaning. 

She stepped away from the shop momentarily, and one of the workers was inside, downstairs, whipping up an order of hot chocolate. 

Minutes later, she noticed a trash can that was holding the back door open was tipped over. 

She followed the evidence.

The intruder had come in, managed to open the ice cream freezer case, and took off with a whole three-gallon tub of chocolate chip cookie dough.

"I look down and the white plastic thing," the store owner exclaimed, "it was empty!" 

A "polite" thief 

What struck her was how polite Cinnamon was in his thievery, not leaving a huge mess behind, as food scavenging bears are known to leave a path of destruction in their wake.

"It was quick, and it was super neat, and I wouldn’t have known if I didn't see the lid on the ground," Moxley said. "Two muddy bear prints and the ice cream was gone. He was stealth and sneaky and super quick and very clean!" the store owner told KTVU.

Further investigation determined that the thief had taken his treasure to the other side of a fence, where he discarded the very empty ice cream tub. 

SEE ALSO: Watch: Man escapes charging polar bear by jumping on snowmobile

"It was licked out pretty clean," Moxley said. "He smashed it down so he could get back to the bottom of it."

She said she captured video of the bear at the fence, presumably on his way back for seconds. 

Moxley said they managed to scare the bear away, but to be sure Cinnamon wasn’t going to try and break in again, she kept bear patrol through the night.

Dig deeper:

The shop owner, who is very active in her community, playing many roles, including running a community center and homeless shelter, also volunteers with the non-profit BEAR League to help protect Tahoe bears.

Moxley said restaurants, stores, campers and residents need to be vigilant to prevent bears from getting into their food and trash.

"A fed bear is a dead bear," she said, explaining that once they get tagged and are found to be a potential hazard to the community, the bears will be put down. 

"We need to learn to co-exist with the bears," she said. "They were here first, and through development we have broken into their natural habitat, and now they really have nowhere to go."

She said her brush with the ice cream bandit was a reminder that the community must be "bear aware" at all times. 

This story was reported from Oakland, Calif. 

Sierra TahoeWild NaturePets and AnimalsNewsInstanews