Bear Falls Through Ceiling Into Kid’s Birthday Party, Eats All The Cake

A bear randomly fell through the ceiling of a child’s birthday party – and proceeded to eat all of the cake.

A black bear invited himself to a one-year-old's birthday party in Alaska at the weekend and promptly tucked into the cupcakes.

The birthday boy's parents, Alicia Bishop and Glenn Merrill, were stunned when the 180 pound male bear crashed through a skylight at their Starr Hill home on Saturday, just minutes before the party was to start.

'I heard my husband yelling, so I poked my head around the corner and there was this crash,' Bishop told MailOnline. 'And a bear landed on the ottoman.'

She saw her husband just three feet from the bear - and for a moment, he and the animal just stared at each other in disbelief.

After running into other rooms, they watched in disbelief as the bear licked the cupcakes.

Merrill ushered his parents and son, Jackson, upstairs and went into another room and shut the door, while his wife stood watching from behind a glass door as he helped himself to the birthday treats.

'The bear walks over to the table and starts eating the cupcakes,' Bishop said. 'I was like, "Of course!" I thought he might be a bit shaken up after falling through the ceiling but all he could think about was the cupcakes.'

After running into other rooms, they watched in disbelief as the bear licked the cupcakes.

Still smiling: Glenn Merrill holds his son Jackson, whose birthday party was rudely interrupted by the uninvited guest on Saturday. The bear had fallen through a skylight, which can be seen broken.

He tested out both the lemon blueberry and peanut butter cupcakes.

She added: 'All I could think was, "I just spent hours setting up and guests are about to arrive!"'

But as he tucked in, she tiptoed into the room and opened a door to the outside. The couple were able to shoo him out - but he wasn't done with those cakes.

'He walked around the house and want back over to the window where the food was,' she said. 'Like "I want more cupcakes".'

But 30 minutes later, police got a call that a bear was in a nearby house and they fatally shot him; authorities believe it was the same bear.

The bear eventually left the home when Merill, 45, went next door and grabbed some bear spray from neighbors. The couple said that the animal seemed used to people and was not aggressive.

The party still went ahead - with the couple quickly attempting to patch up the broken skylight before moving the celebrations into a different room.

Bishop said she thinks the bear was able to get on the skylight by climbing onto a gas tank outside their home and jumping up on to the low roof.

She added that it was lucky that the bear arrived early for the party.

'How he landed from the sky light, he landed on our ottoman,' she said. 'Our son is often in that room and always around the ottoman - so we were really lucky he wasn't there.

'We're definitely used to seeing bears but having one crash through your ceiling is a huge surprise. We were all in shock.'

Police received a call from the couple and about 30 minutes later, received another saying there was a similar bear inside a nearby home, the Juneau Empire reported.

When officers arrived, they shot the animal when it appeared in the doorway. The bear ran behind the house, where it was later found dead.

Tragic end: The black bear was shot dead after it broke into another nearby home.

Wildlife officials suspect it was the same bear that went to the birthday party. It was described in both incidents as a young male, weighing about 180 pounds.

Bishop said she is not completely sure that the bears were the same as they often see the animals in the area, and a reporter on the way to their house noticed a similar one crossing the road outside.

Authorities told CBC that seeing the bears was a regular occurrence.

'There probably isn't a neighborhood or place where we have homes where the potential isn't there for you to run into a bear or observe a bear,' Ryan Scott of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said. 'There is really no place where the potential isn't there.'

He added that the officers were forced to kill the animal found in the nearby house because it was a threat to the family.

'We don't take killing or destroying bears lightly,' he said. 'People were inside that building. I think it was appropriate for that given the situation.'