Residents getting desperate as large bear wreaks havoc in Colorado mountain town

It's a big bear and it looks like it's had a rough go. With one eye looking blinded and an ear possibly missing, it seems to have been in a tangle with something. But at its size, it's hard to fathom what could do that kind of damage to it.

Sabrina Vasquez and her husband own a cabin in the Colorado mountain town of Idaho Springs.

"He's gotta be over 500 pounds," Vasquez told CBS News Colorado.

The bear has been caught on camera at their cabin on State Highway 103 numerous times. It is a serial breaking-and-entering specialist that has gotten in time after time.

"He ruined the carpet with food, feces, urine, so the carpet is ripped out," Vasquez explained, showing the bare kitchen floor. "We're trying to get some window companies to come up here and fix the windows."

They have put a so-called "unwelcome mat" by the back door near the ruined bay window, which has screws facing up, so any animal stepping on it would be painfully discouraged from invading. Last year while they were out of state at a funeral, the bear busted in time and time again.

"He was in here for four days," Vasquez said.

Their neighbor's cabin next door was hit last week.

"We're in cabin jail," she explained. "Because we can't leave. If we leave, he will know that we're gone and he will break in."

The bear, which is likely a male due to its size, has been a problem for several years.

"We've been hearing of this bear in Idaho Springs for a couple of years now and we have a record of it breaking into multiple cabins, probably over a dozen over that time period," said Kara Van Hoose, spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. "So we've seen that escalation in behavior with that bear."

The origin of the problem may have been the actions of one of Vasquez's neighbors.

"Oh, I'm sure because of the neighbor feeding it," said Vasquez.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife did warn and then cite a neighbor for feeding large game animals a couple of years ago said Van Hoose. "When you're doing it over a period of time, you can create an environment when bears, when deer, when elk, when mountain lions are coming back to an area again and again because they found food there."

Now Vasquez says she's going to the cabin less if her husband isn't there. She worries about what could happen. "He's huge, he's massive. Biggest bear I've ever seen," said Vasquez.

CPW has brought a trap to their property.  A bear did get in last week and stepped on the trigger, but the door didn't fully close and it backed out. But looking at video from one of the cameras on the property it's clear that it wasn't the problem bear anyway. It looked about half the size of the one causing problems.

"The bad bear is super smart," Vasquez said.

CPW says a bear in this much trouble will have to be euthanized. Vasquez realizes it's needed but does not relish the fact.

"No, because we're pro-bear. I mean that's why we live here, we love the wildlife," she said.

"When we see that pattern of behavior of continually coming into human spaces, no regard for humans or any sort of fear of humans, in that case, that's something that the bear can't unlearn and (that) behavior that can't be broken," said Van Hoose.

Moving such an animal wouldn't work either.

"If you move that bear to another location, it's not going to break its prior behavior. It's just going to break into houses in that new location. You're not fixing the problem. You're just placing that bear with problems in a new location to then break into houses," said Van Hoose.

Vasquez and her husband believe with the bear being a danger and trapping not working, it's time for CPW to take more action.

"You would think that they would have somebody out there that can hunt down the bear," Vasquez said.

But CPW will continue to try its current methods, says Van Hoose.

"I think we'll continue to try to trap the bear, if that's possible, at this point and then rely on sightings and other evidence that we find nearby," she said.

The animal is a threat, but so far has not broken into homes with people inside. That's one line it appears not to have crossed.