Black bear and cub destroy car in Connecticut after getting stuck inside

WINSTED, Conn. (AP) — Trapped in a car, the adult black bear and its cub struggled. The horn blared and the radio blared. Outside the car, a second cub ran in apparent distress near the Connecticut home.

The Environmental Protection Police were called by the frightened owner of the vehicle on the morning of July 15. They opened a door and the two bears ran safely into the forest with the third bear. The interior of the car was less fortunate: it was completely torn apart.

The incident in Winsted, in the northwestern corner of the state, not far from Massachusetts, was captured in photos and video taken by the car’s owner, who captured images of the bears in the car and the resulting destruction on a cellphone. Officials believe they entered the vehicle by opening a door, but it’s not clear how the door was then closed.

In the space of a week, three incidents involving bears have been made public in Connecticut 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 backyard. She suffered minor injuries and refused treatment, officials said. Conservation officers found and euthanized the bear, which was taken in for testing.

A nearly 500-pound black bear was struck and killed by a car on a highway in Torrington on Sunday, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection reported.

Although bears have long broken into cars, garbage 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 to be defending himself. Last year, a bear stormed into an Avon bakery, startled employees and ate 60 cupcakes before running away. In 2022, a bear damaged the insides of two vehicles in Cornwall.

According to state officials, there have also been a few bear attacks on people in the past two years, but none have been fatal. Bears are also increasingly entering homes.

“Always keep your car doors locked if bears are in your area and never give them easy access to human 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 region in the 1980s and their populations have been steadily increasing. 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 northwestern corner of the state.