Andy Kerrigan opened the passenger door of his pickup outside a Steamboat Springs home and came face to face with a black bear sitting in the seat. The whole thing was caught on a neighbor's Nest camera, and yes, the footage is real.

Black bear inside the cab of a parked pickup truck
Black bear inside the cab of a parked pickup truck

Here's the part the viral clips get right: the bear was actually inside the vehicle, the man chased it off, and nobody was hurt. CBS News and Breaking911 both confirmed the basics independently. [1] No injuries were reported, and the truck didn't appear to be seriously damaged. [2]

How does a bear get into a truck? The boring, true answer is an open window. Kerrigan said the bear apparently climbed in through one, which is exactly how black bears keep ending up in cars in Colorado mountain towns — they smell food, they let themselves in, and an unlocked door or cracked window is all the invitation they need.

The genuinely funny part is what happened next. Kerrigan ran around to the front of the truck and opened things up so the bear could leave. The bear declined. It stayed put and kept rooting around the cab, still apparently hunting for snacks, in no hurry to give back the seat it had claimed.

So he got a wooden plank and used it to intimidate the bear into finally climbing out. The camera belongs to Justin Pickar, whose home security setup happened to be pointed at the right spot at the right moment.

One social post summed up the vibe better than we could.

“🇺🇸 This guy in Colorado came back to his truck... and found the new owner already settled in. At that point, it's not your truck anymore. It's the bear's. Writer: Ian”
— @MarioNawfal · 253 likes on X

What's not confirmed: there's no word in the reporting on what, if anything, the bear actually found to eat, or whether wildlife officials were called. What we can say for certain is that a man in Colorado had to evict a bear from his own front seat with a board, and a doorbell camera has the receipts.

Sources

Primary source: Watch: Colorado man opens truck door, finds bear in the passenger seat - UPI.com

  1. Tweet by @CBSNews — @CBSNews · community
  2. Tweet by @Breaking911 — @Breaking911 · community
  3. Tweet by @MarioNawfal — @MarioNawfal · community