(2002) Mr. Fritz Dekker, a 41-year-old visitor to an Amsterdam zoo, found his way to the bear exhibit.
 
   
 
A bystander remembers Fritz asking whether the bear was s a male or female. Nobody knew, so Fritz Dekker decided to find out for himself.  
 
Fritz climbed over the 7-foot fence and jumped into the enclosure. Despite urgent calls from the crowd, Fritz approached the bear in question. The 390-pound adult was quietly occupied with a ball, and unaware of the intruder. Amazingly, Fritz was able to take an unintrusive peek under the hood. Still perplexed, Fritz tried to determine the animal's gender experimentally by delivering a good, hard kick between its legs.  
 
 
Our friend Fuzzy turned out to be a male, and responded to the assult in a typical male bear fashion. He roared in pain, and charged towards Fritz, who attempted to defend himself with a hasty karate kick in the general direction of the bear while he ran for the fence. This brilliant defense tactic failed completely, and Fuzzy proceeded to occupy the next few minutes mauling Fritz "Bear Ball Buster" Dekker to death.  
 
 
Zoo keepers arrived promptly, but not promptly enough to save the life of the ill-fated Fritz. Several rounds of tranquilizer darts later, the subdued bear was taken to the onsite veterinarian. Fritz was, of course, pronounced dead at the scene.  
 
 
An autopsy shed no light on the reason for Fritz's actions. There were no drugs or alcohol in his system, and his family reported that he was not suicidal, nor did they know of any mental defects other than "an exaggerated sense of bravado."  
 
 
Apart from a pair of badly swollen testicles, the bear was uninjured.

(2002) Mr. Fritz Dekker, a 41-year-old visitor to an Amsterdam zoo, found his way to the bear exhibit.
 
   
 
A bystander remembers Fritz asking whether the bear was s a male or female. Nobody knew, so Fritz Dekker decided to find out for himself.  
 
Fritz climbed over the 7-foot fence and jumped into the enclosure. Despite urgent calls from the crowd, Fritz approached the bear in question. The 390-pound adult was quietly occupied with a ball, and unaware of the intruder. Amazingly, Fritz was able to take an unintrusive peek under the hood. Still perplexed, Fritz tried to determine the animal's gender experimentally by delivering a good, hard kick between its legs.  
 
 
Our friend Fuzzy turned out to be a male, and responded to the assult in a typical male bear fashion. He roared in pain, and charged towards Fritz, who attempted to defend himself with a hasty karate kick in the general direction of the bear while he ran for the fence. This brilliant defense tactic failed completely, and Fuzzy proceeded to occupy the next few minutes mauling Fritz "Bear Ball Buster" Dekker to death.  
 
 
Zoo keepers arrived promptly, but not promptly enough to save the life of the ill-fated Fritz. Several rounds of tranquilizer darts later, the subdued bear was taken to the onsite veterinarian. Fritz was, of course, pronounced dead at the scene.  
 
 
An autopsy shed no light on the reason for Fritz's actions. There were no drugs or alcohol in his system, and his family reported that he was not suicidal, nor did they know of any mental defects other than "an exaggerated sense of bravado."  
 
 
Apart from a pair of badly swollen testicles, the bear was uninjured.

(2002) Mr. Fritz Dekker, a 41-year-old visitor to an Amsterdam zoo, found his way to the bear exhibit.