Truffles the bear takes walkabout

Truffles, the giant stuffed bear that is the mascot for the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, is on what has become an annual X Games departure from his post at the Aspen candy store.

With the help of some X Games revelers, Truffles wandered off this weekend and was found by the side of Highway 82 by some local kids. Last year during the games, Truffles was found bellying up to the bar at Cooper Street, said store manager Jess Granger.

His bruin co-worker at the Snowmass Village branch wound up in The Cirque bar and restaurant last year during Mardi Gras, she said.

“It’s funny how he always manages to turn up in bars,” Granger said. “Normally he has a curfew during big events, and the employees take him inside at 5 p.m. But sometimes they forget.”

Or sometimes Truffles manages to convince passers-by to include him in the action during store hours, and he’s whisked away to join the party.

Granger said Aspen’s Truffles is always found and returned, but some kidnappings have been ugly. A few years ago in a particularly grizzly incident in Durango, that branch’s Truffles turned up blindfolded and hanging from a bridge by a noose.

“Nobody’s ever held him for ransom,” Granger said. “I guess I would file a police report if someone did that, but my bear always turns up. We always get a phone call that starts out, ‘We found your bear …'”

[Naomi Havlen’s e-mail address is nhavlen@aspentimes.com]