It’s never good when the outdoors gets indoors.
Millions of people flock to Smoky Mountain National Park every year to take in the beautiful scenery and witness the incredible wildlife (and moonshine tastings) that Gatlinburg, Tennessee has to offer. In fact, the National Park of the Great Smoky Mountains in the most visited national park in the country.
Why? Because cabins are plentiful there, and there’s plenty of fun for the whole family packed into Gatlinburg and the surrounding area. However, one thing that’s often forgotten is that… well, the location of the tourist hotspot is right smack dab in the middle of nature. So animals encounters are inevitably going to happen.
Most of the time, incidents are contained to more lighthearted situations, like this video of a group of people staying in a cabin getting their parked car raided by a hungry bear. But on the flip side, it’s always possible for something scary like this to happen, where an amusement park worker was caught off guard and attacked by a bear while families watched in horror.
Anakeesta – a mountain top amusement park located right in the heart of Gatlinburg – was the site of this terrifying animal encounter. In the video, a bear had gotten into a snack shack and was going through food while a good amount of people in the same building watched from the other side of the counter.
An unsuspecting employee came walking through the back door and immediately came face-to-face with the bear, who jumped up and attacked her. She was without a doubt thinking, “I don’t get paid enough for this” as she went toe-to-toe with a sizable black bear.
The footage doesn’t reveal how the employee got away, though at one point it shows her run into the concession stand and lock the door behind her. People started asking if the Anakeesta employee was okay, and she insisted that she was fine, though she probably would’ve sarcastically liked to say, “Thanks for the heads up about the bear being at the counter.”
Just a fair warning, the video of the attack is pure nightmare fuel:
@zackskepticon♬ original sound – zackskepticon
Wow… the employee is very fortunate that she got away.
According to reports, the woman declined medical attention that arrived at the scene, even though she was seen holding her arm in pain afterwards. Another issue that came up was that the amusement park was put on lockdown while the bear was still in the area. It ran away after the incident and was never caught, so officials had everyone hang tight for quite some time before it was determined that the coast was clear.
Those that attended the nature amusement park certainly got their money’s worth that day, and I’m guessing (or at least hoping) that the attacked employee is given some time off. Or she decided to quit altogether… whatever she’s getting paid is not enough to have to fight off bears.
