Video shows bear inside car after destroying interior of man’s truck

A Connecticut man got the surprise of his life after he noticed a light on in his mother-in-law’s car Friday night.

When Cody Gillotti went to investigate, he discovered the intruder wasn’t your average prowler – it was a hungry black bear looking for food. Gillotti posted a short video of the encounter on Facebook, writing: “Lock your doors, a bit of an ordeal tonight.”

“I knew something was in it, I just didn’t know what,” Gillotti told WVIT. “It looked like a teenage kid that just passed out in his car after a long night of partying and his mom caught him.”

The bruin had destroyed the inside of Gillotti’s truck and then moved to the front seat of his mother-in-law’s car outside their Cornwall home.

Gillotti called the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and an officer arrived and got the bear to flee by opening the car door with a rope and firing a round from a bean bag gun.

“He loaded up his 12 gauge with bean bag shells. I tied a rope to the car handle and ran the rope up the hill and started yanking on the rope,” Gillotti told WFSB-TV. “It freaked the bear out big time and the bear just kind of exploded with energy and the door went swinging open.”

The bear ran away, but he left behind quite a bit of damage.

“I’m sure the Subaru’s going to be toast. You can’t turn power off the vehicle without disconnecting the battery. You take the key out lights still turn on,” he told WFSB-TV. “The interior’s completely destroyed.”

Black bears are becoming increasingly common in Connecticut as the population continues to grow and expand, according to the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. In 2019, approximately 7,300 bear sightings from 150 of the state’s 169 towns were reported to the agency’s wildlife division.