What could’ve been a safe and satisfying cabin stay for a family in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, quickly turned into a hassle and maybe even a close call after a rather desperate single mother stole food from them. Only, the single mom in question is a black bear, and she had to fight for her “right” to steal food from a man’s truck in a Tennessee resort:
The incident happened around mid-September in Wild Oaks Resort, located in a mountain range in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Kari Schmidt was supposedly the woman recording the incident as the family of black bears walked up to what appears to be her husband’s truck. Sadly, the truck’s tailgate was open, and the bear had quick access to whatever was inside, including their cooler and food bag.
Initially, the man in the video was attempting to shoo off the bear, but thankfully, he knew better than to mess with a mother with her cubs, as they tend to be the most dangerous kind of bears. So when the mother bear slams the top of the tailgate to scare off the man, he quickly backed off; she grabbed the food and ran away for a feast with her cubs, as the Schmidts could only look helplessly and continue their vacation without their packed food.
Thankfully, nobody was hurt during the encounter, but letting the bear take the food apparently has dire consequences for both the human and black bear populations in Tennessee. Bears that become comfortable with stealing food from humans also tend to learn that humans can be easily scared and attacked.
People online found the bear theft funny
And sure enough, people thought that the bear being clever around humans and knowing how easily she can steal food from them was something viewers found amusing. Many have pointed out that the bear was even polite enough to give off a warning to the man, while others noticed she was testing the waters on how the man would react.
“The way the bear slammed its paws on the tailgate…. She said ‘what ya wanna do pops?'” jokes a TikTok user
“Like how the bear bangs the tailgate and they both start to back off and the bear is like oh that worked well don’t mind if I do then.”
“Black bears might be cowards, but i would not take chances with any animal with offspring.”
Other people have pointed out how the tourists are also to blame for the black bear behavior in the area. One Reddit user who also lives in Gatlinburg alleged that the black bears stealing food has become the norm because of tourism, as either the tourists kept leaving trash that has food, or the local government doesn’t collect trash diligently enough, and the trash attracts the bears since it’s an easy meal ticket.
“I’m from there. Sadly this has become the norm because of tourism. If you get up before sun rise and walk the main strip just about every trash can that didn’t get emptied the night before will be tipped over with shredded trash everywhere from the bears. You also have to be alert if you’re walking anywhere, no matter the time of day. They’ll lumber out from between parked cars in the paid lots and make you shit your pants.”
