Cupcake thefts by a bear in U.S. and a guy in Canada take very different trajectories

Two cupcake burglars caught on video doing their thing could not be less alike in location, method, appetite and even species, a CNN reporter has found.

Journalist Jeanne Moos recently posted the comparison, in which she reached out to owners of the Sweet Something bakery in Vancouver, and Taste by Spellbound in Avon, Conn., both of whom had faced recent cupcake thefts.

But their stories could not have been more different. Video footage at the garage behind the Connecticut store shows a large bear ambling up to the building, dragging out a container filled with 60 cupcakes, and scarfing down most of them, paper and all.

Owner Miriam Stephens said she was first alerted to the bear’s presence “by one of my employees making noises that I’ve never heard her make before.” She and the co-worker took a look around the corner of the building and ran off when they saw the bear was still there, eventually scaring it away by driving up to it while honking the horn.

Meanwhile in Vancouver, the cameras at Sweet Something showed a man kicking through the glass door before roaming the store, heading to the restroom, sitting down for a rest — and then finding a mop and bucket, which he used to try to clean up the broken glass, before taking six chocolate Champagne cupcakes and leaving.

It is a very Canadian break-in,” said owner Emma Irvin. “He was really respectful.” In addition to the partially swept-up glass, he left behind several selfies on the store’s cellphone, his face clearly visible in orange sunglasses.

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Emma Irvin designed these “Crime of Passion” cupcakes with a likeness of the thief.

Irvin said she asked police not to press charges, adding: “Do they really care about the six-cupcake thief?” Both bakeries then set to work making commemorative cupcakes — sunglass-sporting “Crime of Passion” ones at Sweet Something, and bear-topped confections at Taste by Spellbound.

Moos’ report added that the bear was subsequently caught in a trap and released some distance away. Meanwhile, an update on Irvin’s TikTok feed reveals that the thief contacted her, apologizing and offering to pay for the door and the cupcakes. He even offered to give her his sunglasses. “I feel like I would wear them all the time,” she said.