Wrong polar bears sent up?

The commissioner of the Svalbard Islands off Norway’s Arctic coast may have punished the wrong family of bears when he recently decided to deport a polar bear and her two young cubs to a deserted island.

The bears were caught last year breaking in to several cabins around the community of Svea.

Wven though the bears are gone, the break-ins have continued, and three polar bears were recently spotted trashing more cabins in Svea.

“The break-in technique is the same as last year. They force their way in under the windows. I’d bet a year’s wages that the criminal is the same. So the commissioner deported the wrong bears last year,” a resident told the newspaper, Innenriks Svalbardposten.

Before being released last year, the deported bears were marked with an X on their bottoms. According to video footage, the polar bears involved in the recent break-ins have no such marks.

“Their first visit cost me NOK 80,000 ($20,000) in materials and repairs,” said Egil Daleng, who has been the victim of polar bear burglaries five times in the past 11 months.

Daleng intends to put up a barbed wire fence around his cabin, but hopes the nuisance polar bears will eventually be removed for good.