{"id":159143,"date":"2026-02-18T00:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/159143\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T00:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:50:08","slug":"florida-bear-caught-on-ring-camera-trying-to-steal-amazon-package","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/159143\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida bear caught on Ring camera trying to steal Amazon package"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">When a Florida family got <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/celebrities\/2026\/02\/05\/how-nancy-guthrie-kidnapper-avoided-surveillance-cameras-catalina-foothills-security\/88535596007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:a Ring notification while on vacation;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">a Ring notification while on vacation<\/a>, they turned on their at-home camera and caught a thief in the act \u2014 stealing an Amazon package right from their front door. The culprit, a bear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The family watched as the bear sniffed the package, turned away and then decided to go back to the package and reconsider. Ultimately, the bear must have decided it didn\u2019t want what was inside the box \u2014cell phone charging cords \u2014 because the bear left it on the walkway by the front door.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Apparently bears are common in the family\u2019s Longwood neighborhood, which is located close to several Central Florida state wildlife preserves and parks. It\u2019s not uncommon for residents to see bears strolling in the streets, but stealing packages, that\u2019s a new one.<\/p>\n<p>Population of bears increasing in Florida<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The bear population grew enough in Florida that the state brought back a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tallahassee.com\/story\/news\/state\/2026\/02\/09\/florida-bear-hunt-results-52-killed-900k-raised-debate-continues\/88587782007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:bear hunt in December 2025 following a 10-year hiatus.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">bear hunt in December 2025 following a 10-year hiatus.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There were 52 bears killed during the 23-day hunt. More than half the bears killed came from the Panhandle. The largest bear killed was a 697-pound male in Collier County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The hunt was held in four regions of the state where an estimated 4,000 bears lived.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.floridatoday.com\/staff\/4387141002\/michelle-spitzer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Michelle Spitzer;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Michelle Spitzer<\/a> is a journalist for The USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA. As the network\u2019s Rapid Response reporter, she covers Florida\u2019s breaking news. You can get all of Florida\u2019s best content directly in your inbox each weekday day by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at <a href=\"https:\/\/floridatoday.com\/newsletters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/floridatoday.com\/newsletters;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">https:\/\/floridatoday.com\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This article originally appeared on Florida Today: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gainesville.com\/story\/news\/2026\/02\/17\/see-video-bear-stealing-package-front-porch-florida-home-amazon-longwood\/88725483007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Florida bear caught on Ring camera trying to steal Amazon package;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Florida bear caught on Ring camera trying to steal Amazon package<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a Florida family got a Ring notification while on vacation, they turned on their at-home camera and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36267,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-159143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-bear-population","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}