An Alaskan family said a black bear got trapped in their car and destroyed its interior before police arrived.
Angela Harkins of Juneau, Alaska, told local media a neighbour heard the car’s horn and called the police, but the bear had torn out the wiring so the owners couldn’t unlock the doors remotely.
“He actually puts his paw on the window at one point before the officer opens the door,” Harkins told Alaska news outlet KTUU.
“(The Juneau Police Department) was using a rope to pull open the door so that they could get it out.”
Michael Wilson, the owner of the car, said the bear couldn’t escape.
“I got to hand it to Subaru. They made a good car,” he told KTUU.
“He was fighting pretty good to get out of the other door, the metal’s bent, all that plastic’s torn off, the chairs are torn off, the back seats are torn apart.”
Wilson’s family said the bear had gotten into three cars that night but locked itself in theirs.
They’re taking the incident as an insurance lesson.
“We only had liability and didn’t have comprehensive, so it’s not covered,” one family member told KTUU.
Bear activity is up this year around Juneau, set in the Alaska panhandle about 342 kilometres south of Whitehorse, with more than five metres of snow and a late spring leading to less berries and fish for the animals to eat, the family told KTUU.
“Lock your doors. Don’t leave any food, no candy,” Wilson said.
Black bears are found across Canada, except for Prince Edward Island, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.
“As human populations encroach on black bear habitat, there is increased risk of bears coming into contact with humans,” Canadian Encyclopedia wrote.
“These instances generally occur when regular sources of food are scarce, prompting black bears to wander in search of substitutes such as garbage.”
