Was breaking the back window of an SUV an act of desperation? Or stupidity? That’s what social media is debating after this group of travelers busted open a window to get a black bear unstuck from a parked – and presumably locked – vehicle.
It’s estimated that around 400,000 bears live in the United States, and in certain parts of the country, residents have to always be on alert and keep an eye out for bears. Black bears make up most of that total number (around 300,000), and one place where you are almost guaranteed to see them is in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
Millions of people flock to Smoky Mountain National Park every year to take in the beautiful scenery and witness the incredible wildlife (and pancake eating and moonshine tastings) that Gatlinburg has to offer. In fact, the National Park of the Great Smoky Mountains in the most visited national park in the country.
With a large amount of black bears living in and around the Smoky Mountains, and the millions of people visiting the national park each year, there are bound to be some wildlife interactions. In this video below, which has quickly gone viral, some people in the Smokies got themselves into quite a predicament.
A black bear got trapped in their SUV.
Bears tend to be pretty nosy creatures, and though they have been known to get violent when provoked (or if their cubs are messed with), they’re usually just trying to have a good time. And sometimes that means getting into a little trouble, in most cases because they are searching for food. That’s normally the main cause for any bear interacting with humans, and likely what was happening in this video.
And it looks like these Gatlinburg goers were in a real pickle, because not only was the black bear in their car… it appears that they were locked out of the vehicle. When the video starts, you can see one man up towards the front trying to do the ol’ clothes hanger trick. That wasn’t working, and eventually, they just decided that the best course of action would be to break a window.
It was quite the chaotic scene:
Desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose.
I’m assuming that they felt as though it would be best – and possibly save the interior of the car – to just break the window and get the bear out as soon as possible. But by breaking the window, they also got themselves a pretty hefty clean up bill… those glass pieces can be really hard to get out of a car’s interior.
Social media users that stumbled upon the video weren’t so sure it was the best course of action, and left hilarious comments below the video like these:
“Everything made sense once I saw the bear.”
“So they left the keys in the car, bear got in and locks it.. natural selection is real.”
“My wife and I are in search of a bigger car as we’re starting a family. It’s good to know the Chevy Suburban allows a bear to comfortable crawl from the front all the way to the back. Lets me know it’s spacious as hell, thanks.”
“So did insurance cover that situation?”
“Guess in a way it was smarter to release him quicker to avoid even more damage inside the truck.”
“I was so confused like just open the door and then realized they locked the keys in the car too. Damn that really is a smoky mountain problem if I ever saw one!”
Hey… some country music artist out there needs to hop on “Smoky Mountain Problem” as a song idea.
