AVON, Conn. (WTNH) — Taste by Spellbound bakers were loading cupcakes into a van to make deliveries when they were surprised by a bear Wednesday morning.

“It was a little shocking,” said Maureen Williams, an employee at the Avon bakery. “The adrenaline was pumping after that one, for sure.”

The black bear appeared from behind the dumpsters, and then went straight inside the bakery. Williams had a cake in her hands when she heard a noise.

She yelled to scare the bear off, but it came back — three times — before she could shut the garage door.

“It turned around, and came towards me, and he did what DEEP calls a ‘bluff charge,’ where he made kind of a huffing noise, and then he came at me a little quicker,” Williams said. “At that point, I knew I wasn’t going to shut the door. He was too close. So, I backed myself out and ran.”

Employees walked around the side to try and scare the bear, but it scared them and retreated into the garage. It then grabbed a container out of the van and dragged it into the back parking lot, where it helped itself to 60 cupcakes.

“We made lots of noise to try and get him to go away,” Williams said. “One of our bakers got in their car and drove around the back and found him sitting there eating all of our stuff. [They] honked on the horn quite a bit to get him to go away, and finally he went away.”

Police checked the area make sure the bear had retreated into the woods, and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection arrived to bait a bear trap with sweets.

Local business owners have had interactions with bears before.

“I saw one larger bear behind the dumpster one day when I was putting trash in there, and I was like, ‘Wow, so they’re around, they’re definitely around,'” said Matt Dean, of M&R Liquors.

The business’ security cameras captured the bear on video. Dean said he’s seen the animal, which has a tag in its ear, around the dumpster.

DEEP said that’s concerning, because bears that become used to people and food don’t scare off easily.

The business is now more alert.

“I will think twice any time I put the trash out late at night, that is for sure,” Dean said.