After a string of vehicle break-ins in a north Canadian town, local residents have identified the culprit: a black bear with a taste for upholstery foam.
Awoken by a noise near midnight on 11 June, Kayla Seward, who lives in the Ontario township of Larder Lake, went outside to investigate – and found the sleepy black bear locked inside her car.
A video of the encounter showed a dozy-looking ursid visible behind condensation-misted windows, sitting in the front passenger seat.
“He’s nodding off, baby look at him,” Seward said, before her husband opened the car door to release the creature off-camera.
The bear had apparently opened the unlocked vehicle by lifting a door handle with its mouth.
The same tagged bear had already broken into her vehicle last year, Seward believes.
“This bear this time last year broke through my back window and was then transported by the ministry [of Natural Resources and Forestry] 200km away,” Seward told the Guardian. “Well, it walked all the way back to take revenge.”
The bear returned last week and broke into three cars around her off grid-home, she said.
“Apparently, the bears are attracted to foam, that’s why they eat four-wheeler seats and stuff I was told,” Seward said.
Wildlife officers had tried to retrap the nuisance bear last week but were unsuccessful, a spokesperson for the ministry said.
Parks Canada estimates that more than 380,000 of North America’s 600,000 black bear population lives in Canada.
Black bears are not normally aggressive towards humans, with most interactions occurring near what bears identify as food sources. Last year a federal judge fined a man for shooting a black bear in Jasper national park, rejecting his defence that he was afraid of the predator.
In 2021, however, a 26-year-old woman working as a helicopter engineer in Alberta was killed in a rare black bear attack.
Seward’s most recent wildlife encounter may prove to be costly, as the bear tore up the upholstery and door panels and defecated after somehow locking itself inside her car.
“Nothing a little duct tape won’t fix,” Seward joked in another video as she inspected the interior of her Honda Civic.
Seward received a rude shock when she contacted her insurance company who said her policy would not pay out as she did not choose comprehensive coverage, leaving her to repair the damage herself.