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State environmental police were called by the surprised vehicle owner on the morning of July 15.
A bear that broke into a car in Winsted, Connecticut, is seen through the vehicle’s front window in this July 15, 2024, photo. AP
WINSTED, Conn. (AP) — Trapped in a car, the adult black bear and her cub struggled. The horn blared and the radio blared. Outside the car, a second cub ran in distress, apparently near the Connecticut home.
On the morning of July 15, the owner of the vehicle called the environmental police. She opened a door and the two bears escaped into the woods, unharmed, along with the third. The interior of the car, however, was not so lucky: it was completely destroyed.
The incident in Winsted, in the northwestern part of the state, not far from Massachusetts, was documented in photos and video taken by the car’s owner, who captured images of the bears in the car and the resulting destruction with a cellphone. Authorities believe they entered the vehicle by opening a door, but it’s unclear how the door then closed.
In the past week, three bear incidents in Connecticut have been publicly reported by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection — another sign of the state’s growing black bear population.
On Saturday, a woman reported being bitten by a black bear in a Cheshire yard. She suffered minor injuries and refused medical treatment, authorities said. Conservation police found and euthanized the bear, which was taken away for testing.
A nearly 500-pound black bear was struck and killed by a car on a highway in Torrington on Sunday, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said.
While bears have long been known to break into cars, trash cans and homes in the western United States, such incidents were rare in Connecticut a few decades ago. They are now a growing phenomenon.
In June, a black bear was shot and killed in Canton by someone who claimed self-defense. Last year, a bear broke into an Avon bakery, scared employees and helped itself to 60 cupcakes before fleeing. In 2022, a bear damaged the interiors of two vehicles in Cornwall.
Over the past two years, a few nonfatal bear attacks on humans have also been reported in the state, and an increasing number of bears are entering homes, state officials say.
“Always keep your car doors locked if bears are in your area and never allow them easy access to human-sourced food,” Ethan Van Ness, a senior adviser at the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said in a statement.
State officials said bears began returning to the area in the 1980s and their population has steadily increased. There are now an estimated 1,000 to 1,200 bears in Connecticut, with sightings in all 169 towns in recent years, but more concentrated in the northwest corner of the state.
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