500-pound bear known as "Hank the Tank" may be innocent in most home break-ins
South Lake Tahoe, California — DNA evidence now shows that a 500-pound black bear the public had nicknamed "Hank the Tank" — blamed for breaking into dozens of homes across the Tahoe Keys area — may be innocent.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife on Thursday said there were three other bears responsible for damaging more than 30 properties that were originally linked solely to Hank.
The agency will soon begin trapping bears in the South Lake Tahoe area to tag the animals and collect evidence for genetic analysis. The bears will be released in a "suitable habitat" and the agency said no trapped animals will be euthanized as part of the project.
The bears are responsible for more than 150 incident reports in the region straddling Northern California and Nevada, including a break-in at a residence in the Tahoe Keys neighborhood last week.
Fish and Wildlife has concluded that Hank may not even be responsible for any of the break-ins over the last seven months, officials said on Thursday.
"Hank is not the culprit," Bear League Director Ann Bryant told CBS San Francisco.
"Just like they say in the murder shows -- you can't argue with DNA!" she laughed.
One of the bears smashed a window Friday and squeezed into a house while the residents were at home, CBS Sacramento reported. Police responded and banged on the outside of the house until the animal left out the back door and disappeared into the woods.
Hank, also known as Jake or Yogi or simply Big Guy, was what one wildlife official described as a "severely food habituated bear" that has "lost all fear of people" and thinks of them as a food source.
"What's problematic about this bear is how large it is," Peter Tira, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told SF Gate on Sunday. "It's learned to use that size and strength to break into a number of occupied residences, bursting through the garage door or front door."
Once the trapping efforts begin, the three "Hanks" — at least — may well form a brigade.