At Wendle's Delicatessen in Franconia, stories about black bear break-ins are the talk of the town.

“It started with one 'bear got in my car last night' story, but then it's become this epidemic,” said owner Wendy Manning.

Her garage was broken into and her son's golf club bag torn to pieces so the bear could get to a sandwich wrapper. Her employee, Quinn Malcolm, said a bear got into his family's garage a couple of weeks ago. “They broke into our house, too, and pooped everywhere,” he said.

“Two times for me they've bitten off the top of a water bottle in my car,” said customer Scott Morda.

Bears have been active in nearby Sugar Hill, too. Local residents reported sightings of a mother bear with two cubs, a large male and a smaller adolescent male.

“Every day I was coming to work and we'd get three or four more reports of 'My car doors were opened,'” Sugar Hill police Sgt. Rick Ball said.

Fish and Game wildlife biologist Andy Timmins said a 2-year-old male made more than 50 vehicle entries and also broke into area homes.

A trap was set in a neighborhood on the Franconia/Sugar Hill line. The bear not only avoided the trap, but broke into nearby vehicles, including Timmins' truck, which held leftover bait.

The next night, the bear wasn't so lucky; he was killed.

“We ended up dispatching him on sight,” said Timmins. “It's really unfortunate, but those were behaviors he'd gotten good at and he wasn't going to stop.”

The bear was not a relocated trap-and-release bear as many residents feared. Those bears are tagged and released in an undisclosed location near Pittsburg.

“This was not a bear we've ever dealt with before,” Timmins said.

Fish and Game conservation officer Robert Mancini said bear density in the Franconia/Sugar Hill area is one bear per square mile. If they find food in a trash barrel or a car, they repeat the behavior because it works, he said.

“It's like you and I going to a refrigerator,” Mancini said.

Brenda Aldrich of Harmon's Cheese Store said she had six bear encounters in a three- to four-week span. The first time a bear punched through her porch screen door to get to her garbage. The last time it broke into her vehicle, she said.

“That was the last straw,” she said.

She called Fish and Game. A trap was set, but no bear was caught.

Fish and Game officials recently held an informational workshop in Sugar Hill on living safely with bears and said residents have followed their recommendations.

Stricter storage methods and ripening of natural food sources should lead bears back to the woods, Timmins said. While he's not convinced the 2-year-old male was responsible for the recent epidemic of break-ins, he has no plans to target other bears.

“I'm very hopeful that's the end,” Timmins said. “Time will tell.”

kgarofalo@newstote.com