Bear snatches cake, Manitoba family's sense of safety at Lester Beach cabin

A family at Lester Beach made a scary discovery early Monday morning when they realized a black bear was roaming their cabin.

Kat Devuono said she jumped out of bed to the sound of glass shattering around 4 a.m. at the cottage in the Lake Winnipeg resort community, which is about 90 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

Devuono said she, her mother, her sister and their seven kids aged five to 17 had all been sleeping in a newer section of the cabin — and the only thing separating them from the bear was a screen door closed by a small latch.

They got to work barricading that door, then moved the kids into a bedroom which they also barricaded, she said.

Devuono said her family then watched as the bear made its way from room to room, helping itself to bags of Doritos, granola bars and Danish pastries.

Her daughter Jubilee said the whole ordeal was "really freaky." And when she and her family finally emerged from the bedroom, she couldn't believe what she saw.

"My favourite cake, chocolate cake, we found on the ground. All eaten," the eight-year-old said.

"And it was just like, 'Oh, my gosh, how did this happen?'"

Devuono said her sister called 911 immediately after they noticed the intruder. But it took a long time before anyone would show up to help them.

First, she was redirected to RCMP, then to the province's conservation department. There, Devuono said someone told her sister there was no one on duty to respond until morning — so their best bet was to try 911 again.

"You never imagine you're going to be in that situation with a bear right there and all your kids and your family, you know, just with a small barrier between you," she said.

"But we knew true terror when we found out that somebody was just going to say, 'You know, no, there's nobody right now. Just let us know how it went in the morning.' That was absolutely terrifying."

When they did call 911 again, they were patched through to RCMP, who hit the road from the detachment in Selkirk, about 55 kilometres away.

"It took them about an hour to get here and they even contacted us on the way to let us know that they did not know what they were going to do when they got here," Devuono said.