- Naturally, her insurance will not cover a dime.
Some types of vehicle damage are easier to explain to the insurance company. Somebody backed into your car in the parking lot and owned up to it? Easy.
A bear broke into your car and ate the seats?
Yeah, good luck with that.
That’s what Canadian Kayla Seward had to try and explain to the insurance agent, though. The interior of her car was recently destroyed in a bizarre bear incident.
A black bear managed to open the door of Seward’s Honda and climb inside the vehicle. By the time Seward noticed the bear, it had devoured the seats of her car and was dozing off for a post-dinner nap.
However, Seward’s car isn’t the only one the bear has vandalized — nor was this the first time it targeted her car. The beast had already been caught and transported dozens of miles away after it wrecked Seward’s previous vehicle.
But the bear came back. Clearly, it has something against the woman.
Cute but Destructive
Seward’s strange encounter happened in the dead of night on June 11. It was around midnight when she and her husband heard a noise outside their off-grid home in Larder Lake, Ontario.
The couple thought the sounds were coming from the direction of Seward’s Honda. Could a burglar be messing with her car?
Together, the two crept outside toward the car. They discovered that somebody had indeed broken in — but it was no burglar.
Instead, a black bear was drifting off to sleep inside the vehicle. Seward’s husband captured the moment of revelation in a Facebook video.
The bear might look kind of adorable, at least what you can see of it through the condensation-streaked car windows. That feeling will probably disappear quickly when you learn what it did to Seward’s car.
It turned out that the bear had managed to open the car door by grabbing the handle with its teeth and pulling it open. Then, it climbed in and proceeded to rip open the car seats, scattering their filling all over.
While it was at it, the bear also managed to tear off multiple interior panels. Finally, as a stinking cherry on top of the sundae of destruction, it took a big dump on the front seats.
A Serial Burglar
You might think that this is a really strange thing for a bear to do. The people of Larder Lake, however, have come to expect this from the animal.
That’s because prior to destroying Seward’s vehicle, the bear had broken into three other cars. But the real kicker is that it had also wrecked Seward’s previous car.
Almost exactly a year ago, the bear smashed the back window of Seward’s vehicle and climbed in. At that time, however, it was caught red-handed.
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry caught the bear. After capture, it was transported nearly 125 miles away to where everyone thought it could wreak no further havoc.
Yet, the bear somehow found its way back. The ministry attempted to re-capture after the first three break-ins, but the beast proved slippery and eluded its hunters.
Sweet, Sweet Foam
But why does the bear keep breaking into cars? What could it possibly want from the vehicles?
As Seward’s poor car indicates, the bear is after the seats. Specifically, it wants to eat the foam inside them.
You see, bears are bizarrely attracted to products made with petroleum and/or formaldehyde. As these materials come into contact with the air, they release various chemicals that smell irresistibly yummy to the animals.
Basically, the bear can’t tell whether that tempting aroma is from something actually edible or car seat foam. All it knows is that it wants it — and what a bear wants, the bear gets.
Well, there’s that mystery solved. Considering how common black bears are in Canada, Seward’s insurance probably covers damage related to the beasts, right?
Not by a long shot. Seward told The Guardian that her insurance company has given her the cold shoulder due to not purchasing “comprehensive coverage.”
As such, she has to pay out of pocket to fix the torn-up, half-eaten, and bear crap-smeared car interior.
“Nothing a little duct tape won’t fix,” Seward joked.
Props to her for taking it all in her stride. If we were in her shoes, we’d probably be looking up how to properly cook bear kebabs.