She narrowly escaped death.
When Laurel-Rose von Hoffmann-Curzi heard something rummaging in her kitchen in October 2021, she never imagined she would come head to head with a dangerous black bear.
A retired California doctor, 67, was staying at a cabin on Lake Tahoe together with her husband, Mario, 68, and their son, Michael, 30, when she had a horrific attack that left her needing dozens of stitches.
Recalling the sounds of “crashing”, von Hoffmann-Curzi says she then went to research. She was shocked when she saw a huge black bear in the kitchen.
“The one light was a very faint glow from the open freezer door, illuminating the back of a standing – and really large – black bear,” von Hoffmann-Curzi said via sun.
![Woman in horror near her mouth.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000010590774.jpg)
![Woman's legs covered with cuts and scars.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000010590772.jpg)
“Taking things out of the freezer and throwing them on the floor,” she continued. “It was what created a loud, rumbling, crackling sound. The bear apparently didn’t like frozen meat. It was very clear.
In the blink of a watch, the bear pounced on von Hoffmann-Curzi, injuring her face, breasts and stomach.
Every thing happened in an easy, she thought. “There was no real break, no real time to do all the things people let you know to do.”
Von Hoffmann-Curzi recalled seeing “one big paw” before the beast began “tearing” her skin.
“I didn’t see anything,” she said. “I just felt knives and blades closing in on me.”
![Kitchen with garbage on the floor.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000010590775.jpg?w=1024)
She said she managed to save lots of herself by throwing a quilt hanging from a nearby railing over the bear’s head.
“It should have scared him when he turned around and walked down the stairs,” she said.
Von Hoffmann-Curzi said she began screaming, waking her husband and son, who got here out of the bedroom to assist her.
![Senior man and woman smiling at the camera.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000010590776.jpg?w=1024)
He believes the three of them scared the bear away for good.
“He turned around and slowly walked all the solution to the front door and left,” she said, adding that she then saw her “creepy” face in the mirror.
“It was just wide open from nose to mouth,” she described. “I thought, ‘Gee, I’m going to wear a ‘Phantom of the Opera’ mask for the rest of my life!”
Von Hoffmann-Curzi said the pain was ‘worse than childbirth’, reliving the terrifying attack in Douglas Wright’s recent book “The Bite Club”, which features interviews with victims of animal attacks.
![A woman with a patch on her face in an armchair.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000010590771.jpg)
![Cabin in the snow.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000010590770.jpg)
Visitors to Lake Tahoe are advised not to depart food around campgrounds and to position garbage in a locked bin or bear box to avoid attracting bears.
Von Hoffmann-Curzi, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, said she had sealed all the pieces but one bag of unripe avocados.
“The chewing gum wrapper will cause them to interrupt windows and get into the automotive. Often the automotive is totally destroyed once they’re inside,” she explained.
One other cheeky black bear was spotted much further north following a group of friends mountaineering the Howe Sound Crest Trail in Vancouver, Canada.
“He stayed at a regular pace, so we got here back at a barely faster pace in order to not alarm him by keeping our distance,” said tourist Geoffrey Zhou.