“Sugar bear” trapped near Empire, relocated by DNR

From staff reports

The black bear that gained national press last week after it briefly broke into Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate in Empire (watch a video here) and made off with a 50-pound bag of sugar apparently has a taste for chickens, too.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) caught the bear in a live trap today on Joshua Evan Fast’s property on Stormer Road, about 2.5 miles southeast of downtown Empire. Fast told the Sun that the bear had eaten 16 of his chickens over the past two weeks after breaking the door to their chicken coop.

The DNR set the trap yesterday afternoon. “We heard it go off sometime in the early morning,” said Fast. “You could hear it moving around in the trap from inside our bedroom.”

Fast took a video of the bear inside the trap with his phone before it was hauled away.

The DNR told Fast the agency would remove the other trap set in Empire, leading him to believe that the bear that ate his chickens is also the famous “sugar bear.”

DNR wildlife biologist Steve Griffith told the Sun last week that, once caught, the bear will be set free in a rural location more than 60 miles from Empire.

Reached by phone, Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate co-owner Jody Hayden expressed relief to learn that the bear was unharmed.