Barracks Rumor Mill cover: full-frame photo of an Air Force service member in OCPs testing a can of bear spray during training, with the headline "A Bear Hit the JBER Hospital Three Times for Halloween Candy" over a dark band and a small SICK CALL stamp.

A Bear Hit the JBER Hospital Three Times for Halloween Candy

October 21, 2026

A black bear walked into the hospital at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, three times in one day. Twice it came in through the automatic doors. The third time it pried them open.

Nobody got hurt. It ate a bucket of donated Halloween candy and food from the coffee stand. The base says the building took no damage.

It showed up at 0123, went straight for the snacks and came back twice. Half the barracks has run that same play on the CQ desk.

The timeline

All of this happened Monday, Oct. 12:

1:23 a.m. The bear walks in through the automatic doors.
Around 2 a.m. A woman leaving after checking in her 92-year-old mother turns down a dark hallway and sees the bear a couple dozen feet away. It’s eating out of the candy bucket and blocking her exit.
After that, Security Forces and wildlife staff walk it out.
4:22 a.m. The bear comes back through the automatic doors. It leaves on its own once security shows up.
9:32 p.m. The bear pries the doors open and goes in a third time.
Around 10 p.m. State wildlife officers hit it with a tranquilizer. It was euthanized after it left the building.

The woman in the hallway

She told reporters the bear never seemed to notice her while she backed toward an unlocked door 60 or 70 yards behind her. Warnings about the bear were playing over the hospital loudspeakers.

She thought about hitting it with the candle-scented aerosol spray in her purse.

Doctors came through a locked door with their badges, took a few pictures and walked her out.

“I’m glad he chose the treats because I didn’t have a lot of tricks for him if I had to figure out how to get out of my situation,” she said.

Why it kept coming back

Biologists said the bear was in hyperphagia. That’s the fall stretch where bears eat everything they can find to fatten up before hibernation.

The numbers

This was the 13th black bear the state put down this year. Twelve of them were on JBER.
Alaska has an estimated 100,000 black bears.
Bear encounters on JBER have caused three injuries and no deaths so far this year.
The base finished switching to bear-resistant dumpsters this year, and nuisance calls went down.
State biologists have killed more than 20 black and brown bears this year. Officials think a bad berry year is part of it.

JBER says it won’t release the security camera footage. The group chat will have to imagine it.

What the base wants you to do

Service members on JBER get wildlife awareness training at newcomer orientation, plus bear spray training and seasonal advisories. The base is asking people to lock their house and car doors, lock up trash and report any bear looking for food around homes or crowded areas to the 673d Security Forces Squadron at 907-552-7070.

Shop patches, flags and tees at e4mafia.shop. If you also hit the coffee stand before sunrise, grab the Caffeine, Nicotine & Hate Tee.

Cover photo: A U.S. Air Force staff sergeant with the 611th Civil Engineer Squadron tests bear spray during Prime BEEF Week training at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, July 23, 2025. This photo is not from the hospital incident. U.S. Air Force photo via DVIDS (ID 9270681), https://www.dvidshub.net/image/9270681/prime-beef-week-strengthens-jber-civil-engineer-readiness. The appearance of U.S. Department of War (DoW) visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement.