Bear Checks Truck For Food While Another Stands On Lookout, Video Shows

A Colorado resident shared a video of a bear opening the door of his truck while another one walked on the side of the driveway and kept a lookout, reports said Tuesday.

A resident near Lookout Mountain in Jefferson County who asked not to be identified send the video to CBS Denver. The video showed the animal making its way to the truck, standing on its hind legs and opening the truck door. The bear then peers inside, but quickly loses interest and disengages itself from the vehicle.

The truck owner told the channel he kept his car very clear, which could be why the bear lost interest so fast.

While all this was happening, another bear can be spotted in the same video, close to the first animal, but making its way down the driveway into the street. The disinterested bear quickly joins the other, which appeared like it was on the lookout, a report said.

The same resident shared another video with CBS Denver from his home, which showed another bear wandering onto his deck.

With the changing season, bears are known to come down from their habitats to residential areas in the mountains and foothills in search for food. This can result in a higher amount of human-bear encounters during the period.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office had previously asked residents to keep their vehicles locked and free of food items as it could attract the attention of bears that wander down into residential areas. It was advisable to keep food away from open spaces, especially at night.

Currently, bears are in hyperphagia, which is a period when the animals were constantly eating to fatten themselves up before hibernation, a spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a report. During this period, bears are known to keep searching through all available places for food for up to 20 hours a day, he said, adding the animal is also known to be aggressive in nature during this time.

In a similar incident, a Denver couple spending their weekend in an Airbnb in Snowmass, Colorado, discovered four bears raiding their kitchen early Sept. 16.

Morgan Adrian and Cullan Barkau woke up to the sound of a scratching at the basement window of their rental home at around 6.30 a.m. MDT (8.30 a.m. EDT) and saw there were four bears, a mother and her three cubs. The bears then made their way up the stairs to reach the deck of the home. The couple realized the animals had entered the home when they heard a loud crash right after.

"As soon as we realized they were inside. It got pretty scary. We didn’t know if they were going to come into the basement if they were going to get aggressive," Barkau said.

The couple used a mattress to block their door and called 9-1-1 for assistance.

"We were frightened," Adrian said. "There was a 10 or 15-minute window where we were alone," before the responders reached the scene.

A police officer arrived at the home and shot the adult bear with a bean bag gun. He then corralled the three cubs out of home, reports said.