A team of repairmen working at a home in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, were taking a break one Friday morning when they found that their truck had been broken into right under their noses.
To make matters worse, the thief had made off with one of the supervisor's lunch bags.
Perplexed, the workmen from AFS Foundation Repair & Waterproofing Specialists analyzed footage from the homeowner's doorbell camera to see if they could spot the offender. What they saw was totally unexpected: a large black bear climbing out through the front passenger's window and running off with the lunch bag in its mouth.
The company shared the footage with Newsweek that shows the mischievous bear as it crawls across the top of the truck and runs off into the distance.
Behavior like this is not all that uncommon. In May this year, a similar incident was caught on camera, showing a black bear breaking into a parked truck and using a cooler box as a stepping stool to get into the carriage. The bear then emerges from the truck with a food hamper in its mouth.
Black bears can be found in forested areas across most of North America. According to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, black bears in the state can grow up to 7 feet in length, weighing as much as 500 pounds.
They are naturally shy and wary of humans, but may still be attracted to the smell of human food. Although they will normally run away from humans, they are powerful apex predators that can be very dangerous if they feel threatened.
A black bear's sense of smell is 100 times more sensitive than a humans, and they can smell food from over 5 miles away. It's no wonder, then, that this bear was able to smell the lunch bag inside the truck.
Incidents like this serve as an important reminder as to why it's important to lock away food sources in areas where bears are active.
To help keep bears off your property, remove any food sources that might attract them as bird feeders, pet food and open trash are all fair game as far as a bear is concerned, and once they know where to find food they will keep coming back.
If you see a bear on your property, the best thing to do is to call your local wildlife service or law enforcement rather than trying to approach the animal yourself.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Pandora Dewan is a Senior Science Reporter at Newsweek based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on science, health ... Read more
