Caught on Video: Bear Traps Itself Inside Woman's Car, Rips Interior to Shreds
A Georgia woman was shocked to find a bear ripping the interior of her car to shreds during a work trip in neighboring Tennessee.
Mary Jane Yarbrough, an art teacher at Warner Robins High School in central Georgia, had taken a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, she told WBIR-TV.
Gatlinburg is just north of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is home to roughly 1,500 black bears, according to the National Parks Service.
One of those bears found its way into Yarbrough’s car on Wednesday morning.
“It was six in the morning and I just keep hearing honking,” she told WBIR, explaining that she was concerned a neighbor might be having an issue.
But the only one experiencing any issue was the young bear locked inside her Camry.
“I open the door. My dog is going crazy and I see that it’s my car that is honking. And it is shaking and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, someone is in there. Someone is stuck in my car.’”
Upon closer inspection, Yarborough came to the stunning realization that a large animal was making a mess of her vehicle.
“The bear actually … smacked the window and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a bear,'” she told WBIR. “It was just disbelief. Like there is no way.”
Yarbrough’s eyes did not deceive her. Police arrived to handle the situation.
Video of the incident shows an officer assisting the bear as it attempted to escape. Once the car door was open, it sprinted off into the wilderness.
Sadly for Yarbrough, the animal had destroyed the inside of the car.
“He ripped the dash, my airbag, the radio is out, he went through my glove box,” she said.
Yarbrough noted that she had left some chewing gum and a protein bar in the car, neither of which was touched by the bear.
The teacher is optimistic, even if she’s been left without a vehicle. She told WBIR that at the very least, she will always have a good story to tell.
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