A cashier was left stunned when a large bear 'with manners' wandered in and happily treated itself to some chocolate bars.
Christopher Kinson, 54, noticed the doors of the 7-Eleven in Olympic Valley, California, but didn't see anyone come in.
It wasn't until Christopher looked down and noticed the bear munching on some snacks during the night shift in the early hours of Tuesday, September 12.
He said: "It's funny. It's like it was purposely polite to take one candy bar at a time, it's almost like it had manners."
Originally from Wisconsin, Christopher added: "Initially I was surprised. I see the door open, and I don't see a torso and I am like 'oh my god. It's a bear'.
The alarmed cashier said the brown bear was far bigger than it looked on the remarkable footage of the incident that was released online.
"The videos really don't do it justice," Christopher continued. "The bear was about 20 per cent to 30 per cent bigger in real life."
"I always kept my distance and I had the back door near me so I could escape if it charged me. I was scared initially, but they just want to eat. You always have to be careful though. We don't know how exactly they are thinking.
"Initially I was scared, but after 15, 20 seconds, I was fine."
Deciding not to disturb the bear and become a "source of food", the Wisconsin man barricaded the door with a broom handle and also tied it up with a rubbish bag.
The bear made multiple trips into the shop, taking a bar of chocolate out each time.
He added: "It came in, sniffed around, then scooted out. Once it got the food that it wanted and it scooted right out the door.
"It grabbed his good, went out for two or three minutes and came back. It came in two or three times and then left for 30 minutes so that's when I blocked the door.
"You don't want to become their source of food."
Brown bears can grow up to 2.4 metres in length and are described as "powerful, top-of-the-food-chain predators" by National Geographic.
It said: "Despite their enormous size, brown bears are extremely fast, having been clocked at speeds of 30 miles per hour. They can be dangerous to humans, particularly if they're surprised or if a person gets between a mother bear and her cubs."
