A Northern California police sergeant couldn't help but chuckle to himself when he arrived at this scene.
Callers in Truckee, about 100 miles northeast of Sacramento, reported a bear trying to free her cub from a trash bin. The unfortunate cub was likely foraging for food when the lid slammed shut, trapping the cub inside.
Video from Sgt. John Mon Pere's body camera shows the cub's mother watching closely from atop a rocky hillside as he arrived to help.
"You're pretty," he called to the mama bear. "We're going to help baby get out."
The sergeant climbed on another container and can be heard offering a few comforting words to the cub before heaving open the lid.
"All right, remember, I'm a friend."
The cub climbed out and scampered up the hillside to join its mother, taking a moment for one glance back in the sergeant's direction.
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It was the second time in three weeks that that the department reunited a mother bear and her cub. In October, Truckee officers freed another cub who was trapped in a locked truck.
