It can be easy to sometimes forget just how strong and clever wild animals can be. Especially bears, regardless of size, you just don’t mess with them, but for an unfortunate tourist visiting Gatlinburg, Tennessee, a hungry ursine beast messed with their car. The furry beast was trying to get to a box of cereal and a sealed bag of dried fruit inside the vehicle, and was clever enough to check for unlocked doors. And by try, the bear literally ripped the handles off all the doors before giving up.
According to the tourist, the bear was “mindful and gentle” in terms of how much damage it did to the car besides the handles. It was more focused on looking for random food left by people than being aggressive. “I’m not mad at the bear, bro was just looking for a snack and it could’ve been way worse,” the tourist remarks on r/mildlyinfuriating. “But now, only one door has a piece of handle that still works, so all doors must be opened via the front passenger side door or the trunk.” It’s definitely an inconvenience that would frustrate anyone, but at least the driver has a story to tell when they return home.
“I didn’t know they were so smart. He tried all four handles just to be sure the others weren’t just a fluke or something,” exclaimed the poster, amazed that the bear even understood how to open the car doors in the first place. Other Redditors shared their stories of how bears can be quite destructive when searching for food. One recalled how they knew a bear that broke open a can with its jaws, while another showed a picture of their coop ruined by a wild bear.
If there are any lessons to be learned from this, it’s that people need to be mindful of any food left around when in bear country, even inside their car. And of course, never underestimate how physically strong or intelligent a feral carnivore can be; it’s adapted to live in the wild, after all.
