If you thought your toddler was destructive after putting it in your car, you might be dismayed to learn that there is a type of passenger even worse for the interior of a vehicle: a wild bear.
That’s what one woman learned recently in Lake Tahoe, after a bear accidentally shut itself inside her Toyota Corolla. What looks at first like an amusing shot of the animal behind the steering wheel quickly becomes more serious as it becomes impatient with its self-imposed imprisonment.
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As can be seen from the porch of the cabin, where the owner of the vehicle is filming from, the bear just starts tearing at the trim throughout the interior. It can be seen chewing bits of the door card, pulling at the weather stripping, and generally not being a good vehicle occupant. However, perhaps the bear’s worst crime of all is pooping in the back seat.
@alejandra_n_h Everyone keeps saying they wouldnt have believe it happened but because its me theyre not surprised. #weekendgetaway #storytime #laketahoe #laketahoebear ♬ original sound – Alejandra
Wisely, the woman does not try to free the bear from the car herself, and instead calls the authorities to deal with it. Once the police arrive, they use a rope to loop around the door handle and open the door from a distance. That allows the bear to get out and run away.
After the bear is safely gone, the woman kindly shows us the extent of the damage to the interior of her car, and it’s pretty bad. Both of the front door cards are torn to shreds, trim pieces hang sadly, and while it’s not surprising that bears don’t belong in cars, it is surprising how much damage one can wreak.
Fortunately, in a followup video, the original poster shares that (maybe because she had video evidence), the insurance company has agreed to step in and take care of the damage, and is providing her with a rental car.
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As a fun side note, this actually happened to my grandma! She left the tailgate open on her Ford Taurus wagon while bringing berries into the house to make jam. When she got out, she saw the bear eating her fruit and her desire to make good preserves overcame good sense, so she yelled at it. That spooked the bear, causing it to run forward, through the car, and into the windshield, before escaping through a door.
She had a hell of a time explaining how the windshield got cracked from the inside to her insurer, but the bear urine and the hair in the glass helped corroborate her story. As proof that humans are always the same, her second instinct (after yelling) was also to run for the camera, because she didn’t think anyone would believe her. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to get a picture, but we believed her anyway.
