A black-and-white still from a security camera shows a bear on its hind legs with its paws on the front door.

Photo Credit: Naomi and Ed Nicholson / Facebook

Mr. Chims at the Chims

Maybe it was trying to get out of the rain

A black bear tried to make a 2 am visit to the Chims Guest House

The Chims Guest House in Port Alberni nearly had an uninvited visitor.

Owners Naomi and Ed Nicholson shared footage from their security camera this weekend. The camera caught a bear trying to get in the guest house front door.

The video shows the bear walking up to the door at about 2:30 am on Sunday morning. It tries to chew on the snow shovel that’s propped against the wall. Then it jumps up on the door.

Was it hungry? Was it wet? Did it have too many drinks at Pastimes and try to knock on the wrong door?

“Good thing it was locked as the bear would have been able to open the lever handle,” Naomi told CHEK News.

“We do make sure to tell our guests to be bear aware and lock their doors for this reason.”

The Nicholsons are no strangers to bears. The couple is Tseshaht, and čims (pronounced chims) means bear in Nuu-cha-nulth language.

Also bears just kind of drop by now and again. They posted a video from September of a bear casually munching on the grass outside their guest house.

But this is the first time one came all the way up to the door.

They shared the video to help remind folks that Port Alberni is bear country.

If you see a bear, don’t panic. Leave it alone, and then report the sighting to the Provincial Conservation Officer Service hotline at 1-877-952-7277.

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