A mother and her young black bear panicked when they became trapped inside a car. The horn was blaring, the radio blasting and a second cub was frantically racing around the outside of the vehicle.
On the morning of July 15, the frightened car owner contacted state environmental conservation police. After they opened the door, the three bears—two of whom were injured—sprinted out into the forest. Unfortunately, the car’s interior was destroyed.
The car’s owner took pictures of the bears in the vehicle and the subsequent damage, documenting the occurrence in Winsted, Connecticut, near the border of Massachusetts. Authorities believe one of the bears opened the car door, but how the door shut is unclear.
There has been a growing black bear population in Connecticut. The state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has publicly recorded three incidents involving bears in the past week.
A woman in Cheshire went to the police on Saturday after a black bear bit her. Officials reported that she declined care despite suffering minor injuries. The bear was euthanized by environmental conservation officers, who then sent it for testing.
A black bear, weighing about 500 pounds (227 kilograms), was killed on Sunday after a car crashed into it on a highway in Torrington, according to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Bears in the western United States have been breaking into “human spaces” for quite some time, but in Connecticut, such occurrences were unusual a few decades ago. They’re becoming more frequent by the day.
Last year, a bear scampered into an Avon, Connecticut, bakery, startled the workers and then sat on sixty cupcakes before scurrying away. In 2022, bears caused interior damage to two automobiles in Cornwall.
There have been a handful of reports of non-fatal bear attacks on humans in the state in the last two years, and officials say the number of bears entering homes is on the rise.
The bear population in Connecticut has increased to an estimated 1,000 to 1,200. Sightings have occurred in all 169 towns, but they are more concentrated in the northwest region of the state.
