‘It decided to take revenge on me’: Coquitlam bear steals golfer’s bag off of cart

A golfer at a course in Coquitlam was left picking up his clubs after a bear stole his bag right off of his cart and dragged it into the woods this week.

Jerome Gignac says he was with a group on Monday afternoon when they encountered quite the surprise — a glossy bear came up and started sniffing around their carts.

“One of the guys that we were playing with, it first went to his bag, ripped his bag open … like tore out some golf balls out of his, so I tried to get it off by waving my arms and yelling at it,” Gignac told CityNews.

“I guess it decided to take revenge on me and went for my bag and grabbed it and we saw it drag it down to the ravine.” 

The ordeal was caught on video. It shows the bear ripping into one bag with its teeth and claws, before moving on to Gignac’s bag and pulling it off of the cart and down the edge of a steep ravine.


Watch: Bear steals Coquitlam golfer’s bag off of cart


The golfer says all of his clubs — except for a lone putter — fell out of the bag when the bruin made off with its loot.

It’s safe to say the bear probably wasn’t planning on playing a round of golf, but Gignac says he has no idea why it came for the bags in the first place.

He notes that none of the golfers had any food in their bags and that the open beer cans in the front seat were left untouched.

“I honestly have no idea. The same with the guy we’re playing with — it ripped open his bag and didn’t find anything. And so I really don’t know what it was thinking,” he said.

“We were joking, yelling, ‘Get away from our beer,’ but it didn’t go near it.”

Gignac says they knew a mother bear and her cub were in the area, but explains that’s nothing uncommon for the course. In fact, the group continued to play after the incident, although Gignac says his game didn’t go as well as he hoped.

The local even recalls hearing noises in the woods leading up to the game, although he never spotted a cub.

He adds there were other golfers in the area, but for some reason, the bear “decided to pick on me.”

In an email from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, it says the BC Conservation Officer Service “has not received any reports of bears attracted to golf bags in Coquitlam.”

It adds that anyone who has interactions with bears are asked to report it at 1-877-952-7277.

Although Gignac initially thought his golf bag was gone for good, he says the gear — reportedly ripped to shreds —  was eventually found by a stranger who was searching for golf balls. They offered to return it.


a bear seen snuffling around a golfers cart in coquitlam

A golfer at a course in Coquitlam was left picking up his clubs after a bear stole his bag right off of his cart and dragged it into the woods this week. (Source: Jerome Gignac)


He tells CityNews the bag was fairly new. However, thanks to the generosity of a relative, he says he is getting a replacement.

The incident isn’t stopping him from playing the game he loves either, or from taking walks with his dog in the area.

“It wasn’t my first bear encounter living up here. I had one walk almost right up to me in my backyard one day and I think it was just as shocked as I was,” he said.

At the end of the day, Gignac seems more upset about how the incident affected his game than anything else.

“The sad part about it was I was having probably the best round of golf I’ve had in years.”

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