The night shift at a convenience store can bring its share of unusual encounters—rowdy customers, late-night snack runs, and the occasional lost traveler. But nothing could have prepared cashier Christopher Kinson for the “customer” who walked through the doors of his 7-Eleven in Olympic Valley, California.
It was 1:30 in the morning on September 6th. The store was quiet, shelves neat, the hum of refrigerators the only sound. Then the automatic door slid open. Christopher looked up, expecting a half-asleep skier or a local grabbing a drink. But no one appeared.
Confused, he glanced down—and froze.
Standing in the doorway was not a man, but a massive brown bear, casually sauntering in as though it had been shopping there for years. Its fur brushed the doorframe, its heavy paws thudded softly on the tile, and its nose twitched toward one irresistible destination: the candy aisle.
Christopher’s first instinct was fear. At 54 years old, and originally from Wisconsin, he had seen his share of wildlife—but never one this close, and never indoors. “Seeing the door open without anyone walking in was startling. But realizing it was a bear… it was unbelievable,” he recalled later.
The bear wasted no time. It went straight for the candy bars, pawing carefully through the colorful packages. And to Christopher’s amazement, it didn’t rip and destroy—it plucked treats one at a time, almost politely, as if it knew how customers were supposed to behave.
From a safe distance, Christopher reached for his phone, recording as the bear calmly munched its way through chocolate bars. His heart pounded, but he couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity. “Its ‘politeness’ in taking one candy bar at a time was almost hilarious,” he said.
But the snack raid wasn’t over. After a few minutes of feasting, the bear left—only to return minutes later. And then again. Each time, it repeated the same routine: shuffle in, grab a sweet, and stroll back out into the night.
Christopher tried to deter it. He wedged the door shut with a broom handle, even tied it with a garbage bag. But the clever intruder found its way back in, as if determined to turn 7-Eleven into its personal pantry.
For more than half an hour, the back-and-forth continued: the bear’s endless sweet tooth against the cashier’s increasingly futile defenses. Christopher stayed calm, always keeping an escape route to the back door. “Initially, it was scary,” he admitted. “But after a while, I knew it was just looking for food. Still, we should always be cautious—you can’t predict a wild animal.”
Eventually, the bear had its fill. With one last look at the candy racks, it shuffled out into the night, disappearing into the forest as quietly as it had arrived.
The aftermath left Christopher both shaken and amused. The shelves were lighter, the store a little worse for wear, but the story—oh, the story—was priceless.
“It was like watching a giant child let loose in a candy shop,” he joked. “Except this child could crush the counter with one paw.”
For locals, the tale has become both a source of laughter and a reminder of the wild world just outside their doors. For Christopher, it was a night he’ll never forget—the night his late shift turned into a midnight wildlife documentary, starring one very polite, very hungry bear.
