Polar bear breaks into Newfoundland home in terrifying attack

A marauding polar bear that terrorized the tiny community of Goose Cove, Newfoundland, went too far when he broke into the home of the Reardon family.

The 300-pound bear had been traveling from house to house, breaking doors and windows in repeated attempts to get inside. The bear raided a farm, killing a sheep, a lamb and two ducks without bothering to stop and eat the animals.

But on Thursday morning, the polar bear invaded the home of Louis Reardon, 55, in this northern Newfoundland fishing town — and that morning was its last.

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Reardon's son Damien, 29, heard a commotion in the kitchen at about 4:30 am, and when he flicked on the light to investigate, he found a polar bear letting himself in.

"Polar bear!" screamed Damien, waking up the family.

“He had the door busted open to the dining room with his two front paws and his head in through the door,” the elder Reardon told the Canadian Press. “I mean, it frightened the wits right clean out of me, to be that close to a polar bear.”

Damien beat on a table with fists to scare off the bear, while his father ran and fetched a gun. Louis Reardon fired two shots over the bear's head, and the animal fled. Soon after, wildlife conservation officers arrived, hot on the bear's trail.

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A cousin named Daniel Reardon told the CP that the bear seemed crazy, like it was killing just for the sake of killing.

At one home, the bear “broke the windows out of each side of the house and went on,” he said. “It seemed like he was in a bad mood.”

Wildlife officers eventually shot the bear, fearing it might harm someone, the CBC reported. They had wanted to tranquilize the animal and move it away from the area, but the weather wasn't suitable for travel by helicopter.

According to VOCM, a radio station in Newfoundland, the polar bear is considered government property and will be taken to a local taxidermist.

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