Video: Colorado Man Gets Surprise of a Lifetime, Finds a Bear Sitting in His Pickup Truck
A Colorado man named Andy Kerrigan experienced an unusual and startling encounter when a bear entered his truck while he was nearby. Kerrigan was going about his usual day in Steamboat Springs when he discovered the bear sitting in the passenger seat, apparently eating his lunch. He attempted to scare the bear away with loud noises and taking pictures but was unsuccessful until he used a wooden plank to force the animal to flee out of the vehicle. The incident highlights the prevalence of black bears in Colorado, with around 17,000 to 20,000 living in the state, frequently enough coming into conflict with humans by accessing food sources.
Yogi Bear, it turns out, may have been more documentary than cartoon all along.
Because while Jellystone Park taught many Americans to fear picnic baskets, one Colorado driver learned a more modern lesson: in the age of suburban sprawl and opportunistic wildlife, sometimes it’s not your lunch that gets stolen.
It’s your entire vehicle that gets temporarily “borrowed.”
According to KDVR-TV, Andy Kerrigan was going about his daily business as he often does in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
It was a normal day, doing normal work, with his normal truck — until things got decidedly less normal.
You can watch the entire hairy encounter for yourself below:
According to CBS Colorado, Kerrigan was a contractor who had a terrifying run-in with an unexpected passenger in his truck.
In the video, you see Kerrigan putting some piece of equipment away before he opens the passenger side door to his truck.
At this point in the video, Kerrigan visibly lurches backwards, and for good reason: a bear had somehow gotten into his truck.
“I opened the door and saw the bear sitting there,” Kerrigan recalled to The New York Times.
While reports are unclear on if Kerrigan had a picnic basket in his truck, the 52-year-old did acknowledge what the bear was doing in his car.
“I was astonished, surprised,” he said. “He was sitting shotgun eating my lunch.”
A spooked Kerrigan would try to scare the bear with loud noises — while taking pictures of it — as he tried to navigate the hairy situation.
Alas, the initial attempt to spook the bear was wholly ineffective, as the animal continued to paw through Kerrigan’s truck.
It wasn’t until Kerrigan grabbed a plank of wood that he was able to successfully scare the bear off, as it eventually ran out of the passenger’s side door and was chased off.
Speaking with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department, The New York Times reported that “an estimated 17,000 to 20,000 black bears” call Colorado home, and that “most conflicts with people occur when bears gain access to human food sources or other attractants.”
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