Author Topic: Home Invasion  (Read 716 times)

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Offline Sourdough

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Home Invasion
« on: October 18, 2008, 01:39:31 PM »
Got this from todays Fairbanks Daily News:


Salcha homeowner kills three marauding grizzlies

By Tim Mowry



FAIRBANKS — A family of three grizzly bears that broke into a garage and raided a freezer at a home in Salcha earlier this week was shot and killed Thursday night by the homeowner after they evidently returned for another meal and the sow charged the man.

“They chased me into my house,” Brandon Mattzela said by phone Friday morning. “That was beyond my scope of live and let live.”

Unbeknownst to Mattzela, the bears — a sow with two yearling cubs — were at his house when he returned home from a trip to town at about 9 p.m. The two cubs were in the garage, and the sow was in a feed shed on Mattzela’s property.

A motion light on the garage was off when he arrived home, leading Mattzela to believe the cubs had been in the garage for a while, and were possibly even sleeping while the sow rummaged through his feed shed.

“I think what happened is I got between her and the cubs, and I didn’t realize it,” he said.

Mattzela was in the back of his Ford Ranger pickup, which he had backed up to his porch to unload a fuel tank, when he heard the sow coming toward him.

“I heard the crunching of the snow, and she was woofing,” said Mattzela, a 29-year-old concrete cutter.

If it hadn’t been for the F-150 parked in the yard between Mattzela and the bear, he might not have made into the house, he said.

“She hit the truck, and I could see the truck move,” Mattzela said. “I heard this thump, and then she came screaming around it.

“By the time I had my hand on the door, she was 10 feet away,” he said.

Once he was inside, the sow started pacing back and forth in front of the porch, woofing and growling, Mattzela said.

“She was staring at the front door, pacing back and forth, making a lot of noise,” Mattzela said. “She came up to the porch a couple times and put her paws on it and pushed on it.”

At that point, Mattzela grabbed a .300 Winchester magnum rifle, went upstairs and shot the sow through his bedroom window.

The full moon and a light amplifier on his scope allowed him to get a good shot, he said. After he shot the sow, the two cubs ran to their dead mother and he shot them, too.

“I didn’t like shooting the cubs,” Mattzela said. “I feel bad about it, but it had to be done.”

Department of Fish and Game spokeswoman Cathie Harms wasn’t surprised when Mattzela called her Friday to report the shootings.

She called it an “unfortunate situation” but one that was justified and probably inevitable, given the bears’ increasingly bold behavior.

“It’s gone beyond getting into buildings and freezers,” she said. “He was charged by the sow, and the (cubs) were large enough to present a danger.

“It’s clearly a defense of life and property shooting,” Harms said after talking to Mattzela.

There was no doubt in Mattzela’s mind that he was defending himself.

“You can’t be in your own home and think something is going to break down the door and eat you,” said Mattzela, who measured the sow at about 6 feet. “(The sow) was overly aggressive. I’ve been toe to toe with bears before, and that one scared the crap out of me. My heart was in my throat for about two hours after that.”

Not only were the cubs too young to survive on their own, Harms said the young bears had been taught by their mother how to forage for food around homes, which almost always leads to problems.

“These guys learned some very bad habits,” Harms said of all three bears. “None of our research has shown you can untrain a bear once they’ve learned these kinds of habits.”

The bears had been raising a ruckus in the rural neighborhood 35 miles south of Fairbanks for more than two weeks. State wildlife biologists with the Department of Fish and Game set a trap for the bears last week after the bears pounded on the door of another home about 4 miles up the road from where Mattzela lives.

The bears triggered the trap twice without getting caught.

Mattzela first noticed their tracks at his house Tuesday. On Wednesday, they returned to break into his garage and rip the top off a chest freezer, helping themselves to a buffet of frozen salmon, moose and caribou.

Mattzela caught the bears in the act when he let his dog out at 5 a.m.

The dog, a basset hound named Pike, ran out and confronted the bears, prompting the sow to swat at him. Mattzela shot at the bears with a .44-caliber handgun, but said he didn’t think he hit them because he was worried about shooting his dog, which escaped unscathed.

The bears broke down the door to the garage that Mattzela had rebuilt after they got into his garage Wednesday, causing what he estimated is about $1,000 in damage.

“They went straight through the rebuilt door,” he said. “I’ve been dealing with bears all my life, and I thought I had it barred up pretty good.”

The hides of the bears will be salvaged and used for educational purposes or sold at the Department of Fish and Game’s annual spring hide, horn and antler auction for animals killed in defense of life and property or killed illegally, Harms said



Life is always interesting up here.  A good reason to not break into someones home here.  We shoot intruders. 
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Offline powderman

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Re: Home Invasion
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2008, 03:41:19 PM »
SOURDOUGH. Thanks for sharing that story. I've never had any desire to live around bears. In a situation like that, does the landowner get to keep the meat or not??? It would be a shame to see it wasted. POWDERMAN.  ??? ??? ;D
Mr. Charles Glenn “Charlie” Nelson, age 73, of Payneville, KY passed away Thursday, October 14, 2021 at his residence. RIP Charlie, we'll will all miss you. GB

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Offline Troyboy

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Re: Home Invasion
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2008, 03:46:33 PM »
Good thing he was armed.


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Offline Sourdough

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Re: Home Invasion
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2008, 07:56:06 PM »
You don't want to try and eat Grizzly.  Dogs won't even eat it.  When a Grizzly kills something, it will start eating what ever it is, thern buries the rest.  Then as it gets hungry it will pull it out and eat some more.  It often takes several days, and sometimes a week or more to finish off what ever it is that it killed.  As the meat gets more puttied the better they seem to like it.  When a Grizzly comes upon a winter kill, or a wolf kill they will lay claim to it by covering it and lying on it till they have eaten it all up, no matter how rotten it is.  Therefore Grizzly meat smells so bad no one wants to be near one being skinned.  Few people can skin a Grizzly without throwing up at least once.  So Nobody wants the meat.

Now if it is a Black Bear, totally different story.  The hide, skull,  and the meat has to be turned over to the state.  The meat goes to a local soup kitchen or charitable organization.

As far as being armed, everyone has a shotgun or rifle sitting just inside the door of almost every house.  My wife keeps a loaded 12 ga hanging by the back garage door.  I keep a loaded 30-06 hanging by the front door, and another 12 ga behind the wine rack at the kitchen door going out onto the deck.  Alaska is a right to carry state, meaning you don't have to have a concealled carry permit to carry concealed up here.  So almost everyone carries a pistol of some type all the time.  I have a holster sewn into the inside of my parka, I usually carry a .45 ACP.  The wife has the same thing, she carries a 9MM, or a .357.  During the summer if I am going into the woods I wear a shoulder holster and carry a .454 Casull.  I always have a rifle in my vehicle, either a 30-06 or .350 Rem Mag. 
Where is old Joe when we really need him?  Alaska Independence    Calling Illegal Immigrants "Undocumented Aliens" is like calling Drug Dealers "Unlicensed Pharmacists"
What Is A Veteran?
A 'Veteran' -- whether active duty, discharged, retired, or reserve -- is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America,' for an amount of 'up to, and including his life.' That is honor, and there are way too many people in this country today who no longer understand that fact.

Offline powderman

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Re: Home Invasion
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2008, 03:18:18 AM »
SOURDOUGH. Thanks, I didn't know that. I ate black bear when I was real young and liked it, I just assumed the grizz was good to eat too. POWDERMAN.  :o :o
Mr. Charles Glenn “Charlie” Nelson, age 73, of Payneville, KY passed away Thursday, October 14, 2021 at his residence. RIP Charlie, we'll will all miss you. GB

Only half the people leave an abortion clinic alive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAiOEV0v2RM
What part of ILLEGAL is so hard to understand???
I learned everything about islam I need to know on 9-11-01.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDqmy1cSqgo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u9kieqGppE&feature=related
http://www.illinois.gov/gov/contactthegovernor.cfm

Offline BBF

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Re: Home Invasion
« Reply #5 on: October 20, 2008, 12:56:48 PM »
 :)
If I should ever move back to the US I will put Alaska high on my list ;)
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Offline Old Syko

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Re: Home Invasion
« Reply #6 on: October 20, 2008, 01:38:01 PM »
Interesting story and thanks for the info on grizzly meat.  I do find interesting the way the story is written.  It is as though Mr. Mattzela shot and killed an armed human intruder in self defense rather than a wild animal.  We read such stories here all the time but the intruder generally has only 2 legs.

Offline powderman

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Re: Home Invasion
« Reply #7 on: October 20, 2008, 02:31:29 PM »
There was a home invasion locally Sat night. 3 punks invaded a home, the owner killed one, one less scum. POWDERMAN.  ;D ;D
Mr. Charles Glenn “Charlie” Nelson, age 73, of Payneville, KY passed away Thursday, October 14, 2021 at his residence. RIP Charlie, we'll will all miss you. GB

Only half the people leave an abortion clinic alive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAiOEV0v2RM
What part of ILLEGAL is so hard to understand???
I learned everything about islam I need to know on 9-11-01.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDqmy1cSqgo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u9kieqGppE&feature=related
http://www.illinois.gov/gov/contactthegovernor.cfm