If you’re visiting the Great Smoky Mountains , you should probably lock your car — unless you don’t mind a black bear trashing your interior. A TikToker named Emma ( @intrusivethot03 ), whose last name is not listed on the platform, said that’s exactly what happened to her sister. Emma posted a video on May 24 purportedly showing the inside of her sister’s vehicle after she said a bear got trapped inside.
The now-viral video has 9 million views and 773,000 likes as of Wednesday, and shows the interior almost entirely wrecked. In the video, a crumpled bag of popcorn — as well as the car’s rearview mirror — can be seen on the floor, and the steering wheel appears to have been bitten into. Emma was in the greater Great Smoky Mountains area when the bear opened her sister’s car door and got inside, she said in a follow-up video from May 25 summarizing the encounter.
Emma said in the same video that she and her sister have been going to the resort in the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge area in Tennessee for 20 years, and that every year they’ve been warned about bears and asked to lock their doors and avoid leaving food inside. Emma didn’t name the resort in her videos, and didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. During the first night of her vacation with her sister, Emma said in the video from May 25, she heard air horns outside at around 10 p.
m. Emma said in the video that she and her sister went outside to check it out and guessed resort employees were trying to get a bear to go back into the woods but it was hard to see the animal in the dark. “So all of a sudden, we’re watching and we hear this twig snap to our left,” Emma said in the video.
When she turned, she said, she saw a black bear climbing a fence. Emma shared an image purportedly showing the bear climbing the fence in another video posted to TikTok on May 24. “We were all just sitting there, quiet,” Emma told viewers.
She added that the bear was just 10 feet away from them and near her sister’s red Prius. Seconds later, Emma said in the video, her sister told her: “My car door just opened. ” Then, Emma said the bear got in the car which was parked on a hill, causing the door to shut behind the animal and trap him inside.
“It just starts freaking out,” Emma told viewers of the bear’s reaction. “He’s shaking, he’s turning on the headlights. We felt so horrible,” she said, adding that the bear set off the horn at one point.
In the same video, Emma said resort employees called the police and told her that if the bear didn’t calm down, they’d have to euthanize him. “There is literally no way you’re doing that,” Emma said she told the resort employees, adding that she said she would “open the door myself. ” When the police arrived, they opened the car door and then proceeded to run “like hell,” Emma said, adding that “our little bear friend did the same,” running up a hill.
Emma posted another video on May 24 that appears to show police opening the car door to release the bear. “Thankfully we’re all safe and so is our bear friend,” Emma said in the video summarizing the incident. According to the National Park Service ‘s website, if you see a bear, you should avoid an encounter by keeping your distance and by “not surprising” the animal.
“Most bears will avoid humans if they hear them coming,” the National Park Service website says. “Pay attention to your surroundings and make a special effort to be noticeable if you are in an area with known bear activity or a good food source, such as berry bushes. ” If you do encounter a bear, the NPS has some general tips for staying safe, such as identifying yourself “by talking calmly” and standing your ground while “slowly” waving your arms to “help the bear recognize you as a human.
” Other advice includes hiking and traveling in groups — which “are usually noisier and smellier than a single person” — and making yourself “look as large as possible” and moving to higher ground, though it’s important to not climb a tree or run away. “Leave or take a detour,” the NPS advises, while leaving the bear “an escape route,” and if it’s not possible to leave wait for the bear to move away. The NPS advises that visitors check recommendations for the park they’re going to, as these vary based on “local bear behavior.
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From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/tiktoker-shows-car-interior-after-black-bear-trapped-2023-6
