Authorities in California have given a reprieve to an overweight suspect responsible for a string of break-ins who was captured after more than a year on the run.
Why? Well the suspect nicknamed “Hank the Tank” is a 500lbs bear.
Hank is believed to have broken into 21 homes in the Lake Tahoe area since 2022.
Authorities also discovered that Hank, is actually a female bear with three cubs.
In a statement released on Friday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) said that biologists had “safely immobilised” the bear, who had been linked to 21 break-ins by DNA evidence.
While California authorities have noted that relocation is “not typically an option”, Hank’s fame has given her a reprieve.
Pending a successful health check, Hank will be taken to the Wild Animal Sanctuary near Springfield, Colorado.
Her three cubs will be taken to a different facility in California “in hopes they can discontinue the negative behaviours they learned from their mother before being returned to the wild”.