She barely escaped death.
When Laurel-Rose von Hoffmann-Curzi heard something rummaging through her kitchen in October 2021, she never imagined she’d come face to face with a dangerous black bear.
The retired California doctor, 67, was staying in a Lake Tahoe cabin with her husband, Mario, 68, and their son, Michael, 30, when the terrifying attack unfolded, leaving her needing dozens of stitches.
Recalling hearing “crashing” sounds, von Hoffmann-Curzi says she next went to investigate. She was shocked when she saw a huge black bear in the kitchen.
“The only light was a very dim glow from the open side-by-side freezer door, illuminating the back of a standing — and very large — black bear,” said von Hoffmann-Curzi, via the Sun.
“It was taking things out of the freezer and flinging them on the floor,” she continued. “That was what was creating the loud, pounding, crashing sound. The bear, apparently, did not like frozen meat. That was very clear.”
In a flash, the bear lunged at von Hoffmann-Curzi, injuring her face, breasts and abdomen.
“It all happened in a moment,” she reflected. “There was no real pause, no real time to do all the things that people counsel you to do.”
Von Hoffmann-Curzi recalled seeing “one large paw” before the beast started “tearing” her skin.
“I couldn’t see anything,” she said. “I could just feel what were like knives and blades gripping at me.”
She said she was able to save herself by throwing a quilt hanging on a nearby railing over the bear’s head.
“It must have startled him, as he turned around and went back down the stairs,” she recounted.
Von Hoffmann-Curzi said she started screaming, waking her husband and son, who came out of their bedrooms to help her.
She believes the three of them scared the bear away for good.
“He turned back around and slowly sauntered out the whole way towards the front door and left,” she said, adding that she then caught a glimpse of her “terrifying” face in the mirror.
“From my nose to my mouth was just wide open,” she described. “I thought, ‘Boy, I’m going to be wearing a ‘Phantom of the Opera’ mask for the rest of my life!’”
Von Hoffmann-Curzi said the pain was “worse than childbirth,” reliving the horrendous attack in Douglas Wright’s new book “Bite Club,” which features interviews with victims of animal attacks.
Lake Tahoe visitors are advised not to leave food around campsites and to place garbage in a locked container or bear box to avoid attracting bears.
Von Hoffmann-Curzi, who lives in the San Francisco Bay area, said she had locked everything away except one bag of unripe avocados.
“A bubblegum wrapper will cause them to smash the windows and get into a car. Often the car is completely destroyed once they are inside,” she explained.
Another brazen black bear was spotted much farther north, following a group of friends hiking along the Howe Sound Crest Trail in Vancouver, Canada.
“It stayed at a constant pace, so we hiked back at a slightly faster pace as to not alarm it while maintaining distance,” hiker Geoffrey Zhou said.
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