Posted on 11/04/2021 5:49:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Laurel-Rose Von Hoffmann-Curzi, of Orinda, knew something was wrong early Saturday morning when she heard large "thunk" noises coming from the kitchen of her North Lake Tahoe vacation home.
It was about 5:30 a.m., and Hoffmann-Curzi roused herself from bed to investigate the noise, presuming it was her 29-year-old son being "rough" in the kitchen.
Instead, she saw the back of a massive bear, illuminated by the light from the freezer, which it had ravaged.
Within seconds, Hoffmann-Curzi saw a paw swipe at her.
"The next thing I knew, I saw the big paw and nothing else. I was just being torn out," she said.
Hoffmann-Curzi screamed and screamed, throwing a drying quilt from the stairwell onto the bear, who, after his initial attack, turned back twice more appearing to want to attack further.
Within moments, the screaming awakened Hoffmann-Curzi's son and husband, who were asleep in bedrooms nearby. They came rushing to her aid, scaring the bear off. He left the way he came in — through the unlocked front door.
Hoffmann-Curzi believes the bear knew the cabin was occupied, as bears have impeccable sense of smell. She thinks he smelled avocados sitting on the ledge of the kitchen counter, drawing him into the house. All other food was properly stored and put away far from the cabin's ground floor.
"Our place is meticulously set up to prevent bears," she said.
Hoffmann-Curzi was rushed to a local emergency room. She suffered severe injuries to her face, requiring surgery at UC Davis, as well as lacerations to her arms, chest and back.
She credits "dumb luck" — and her family's timely arrival — with her survival.
"I really, truly should be dead," she said, citing how close the bear's claws struck to her carotid artery.
Hoffmann-Curzi not only survived a bear attack — she's also battling Stage 4 Lymphoma that affects her B-cells, which are responsible for fighting infection. She doesn't believe her COVID-19 vaccines have worked given her condition, and her North Lake Tahoe home provided a necessary escape as she isolates from the virus.
She said she's noticed bear attacks and home intrusions in Tahoe become more and more common and largely blames humans who don't properly secure food and trash for the problem.
"I love wildlife. I love bears," she said. "But there are bad bears, just like there are bad people. And bad bears need to be relocated, they need to be taken away."
Patrick Foy with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the agency has opened a wildlife attack investigation on the mauling.
"We try to get to the victim as quickly as possible, before the physicians clean the wounds," he said. "Our objective is to swab into the actual bite wounds or scratch wounds to identify microscopic traces of DNA from the offending animal. What that helps us do is later identify if we can remove that attacking aggressive animal."
If the offending animal is caught, it will be euthanized, he said.
Foy said there have been numerous bear home break-ins in recent months, and noted that there was another bear attack in a Tahoe home in June.
"This is happening more and more frequently in the Tahoe region," he said.
Foy advised always keeping your doors locked to prevent bears from breaking in. If a bear does enter your home, Fish and Wildlife recommends making loud noises and retreating from it as fast as possible into a room with a door. Once you are safe, call 911.
In the meantime, Hoffmann-Curzi is staying away from her Tahoe retreat.
"The scary part is [the bear] will do it again," she said. "And he'll come to our house again because he knows there's food in it. This is a dangerous bear."
Did you post this for the headline?
I guess the bear was multi-tasking. Fighting cancer and mauling a woman.
A hyphenated first and last name—that takes the cake.
So it was two against one, eh?
Winner for today’s headline participation award.
We have these things called guns…
L
Sounds like an overt warning to the voters in Virginia.
If she and her family live in Orinda, they are likely very wealthy. Orinda is a beautiful city, lush with trees, rolling hills and well maintained streets. Sort of a bedroom community for the well heeled, many of whom commute to San Francisco for their jobs. Lafayette and Walnut Creek are similar. Housing a little lower priced.
She has to remember that area in the Tahoe region belonged to the Bears long before any rent cottages were built on it.
Many such areas were reclaimed by the beasts during the first lockdown. Fewer vacation renters. The animals don’t know the lockdown is over.
AND a Dutch “Von” thrown in, too.
The only thing better would be if she were Spanish and had six or seven given names.
A couple of buddies and I briefly looked at joint real estate investing in 1973. We got serious about a house in Orinda, but it was $99,000, a bit beyond our price range for an investment rental unit. Sigh. Woulda, shoulda, coulda.
“The scary part is [the bear] will do it again,” she said. “And he’ll come to our house again because he knows there’s food in it. This is a dangerous bear.”
Get yourself a lever-action 45-70, and when he comes back, make him deceased. You’d get a lovely bear robe, a large quantity of bear grease, teeth and claws for necklaces, and I’m sure somebody would be grateful for all that meat, if you don’t want it.
What could be better than curling up under a bear robe, gnawing on bear jerky, while you sip herbal tea and watch “Friends” reruns?
See what I mean? And that was way back in the Nixon Administration.
Leaving the avodcados on the window ledge and the front door unlocked isnt really bear-proofing the cabin.
Yowzers.
I don’t see anything wrong with the headline.
The WOMAN was mauled by a bear, while she was also fighting cancer. The sentence doesn’t suggest that the bear was fighting cancer.
She should have an an electric bear mat at the front door.
Is she getting AIDS for her birthday, and COVID for Christmas?
Except for the unlocked front door.
How do the bears know when the avocados get ripe?
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