A Southern California woman was astonished to find a black bear successfully opened her car door and began rummaging through it, and the entire encounter was captured on video.
The woman, Natalie K., resides in La Crescenta and says this incident happened Monday afternoon after she picked up her daughter from school.
Everything seemed normal. Natalie and her daughter went inside and continued their work for about five minutes when, to her surprise, she heard someone honking her car horn.
As it turned out, it was a black bear.
“While I was inside my car, he destroyed the upholstery of my car seat, ate pancakes and honked the horn,” Natalie said. “Just after I honked the horn, I got out to see the bear in my car. It didn’t run out right away… it just stared at us and didn’t move.”
Natalie told KTLA she started screaming and throwing things at Bruin, who started to leave but ended up sitting “four feet away from the car.”
Natalie explained that more items were thrown before the bear finally left the area.
This isn’t the first time Natalie and her neighbors have encountered bears, and according to her, there is one factor that contributes to bear activity, specifically this one.
“This bear is very familiar with the area, in part because of the city’s policy of not issuing bear-resistant litter boxes to Glendale residents, as unincorporated areas of Sierra Madre and Los Angeles County do,” she said.
Footage of the bear going to Natalie’s SUV, opening the door and looking through it was sent to KTLA — it should be made clear that she did not take the video herself, as evidenced by a man’s Spanish-language comment in the background — and confirmed that she had permission to share it.
The man recording the video says “Está buscando para la comida,” which means “He is looking for food.”
The man was likely right, as the bear made its way from the trash can to the driveway where the SUV was parked. With a surprising amount of ease, the bear was able to open the passenger side door and sniff around.
This sequence of events clearly baffled the photographer.
“¡Mira! ¿Visits?” He asks: (Look! Do you see that?) followed by an exclamation: “¡No mames!” (impossible!)
The video ends shortly after. Thus the interaction between Natalie and the bear was not captured on camera.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has a list of precautions Golden State residents can take and recommendations on what to do if a bear is spotted. Click here for more.