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T-Shirt the Bear — somewhat of a celebrity on the north shore of Lake Tahoe — required an assist from sheriff’s deputies after becoming stuck in a dumpster.
Video posted by the Placer County sheriff’s office shows the rescue early Monday in Kings Beach by deputies identified as Bertoni and Staley.
The video begins with a deputy tentatively approaching a dumpster that is shaking. The bear pops his head out and the deputy jumps back.
“Yep, it’s T-Shirt,” he says.
The bear, named for the white mark on his chest, has had previous run-ins with the law, including a July incident in which he wandered through Kings Beach amid crowds of tourists.
In Monday’s incident, the bear, who is estimated to weigh 400 pounds, had somehow squeezed into the dumpster through a square hole in one of the cover flaps but apparently couldn’t pull himself out.
The deputies use a three-foot stick to unhook the chain holding one flap and then dart in to flip the flaps open.
T-Shirt clambers out and waddles away.
