Tense Moment as 'Huge' Trapped Bear Let Out of Car in Pennsylvania

A bear that broke in to a car in rural Pennsylvania on Sunday, March 17, was released by a game warden as the car’s owners looked on nervously, footage shows.

Footage posted to TikTok by Katie Homer shows a black bear trapped inside a car in Dingmans Ferry near the Pocono Mountains. Homer said she came home after a long weekend and noticed the hazard lights on in the car in her driveway. Homer and her family heard a loud bang in the car window and realized there was a black bear inside. A game warden is seen freeing the bear from the driver’s side door of the car, after which the bear runs into the adjacent woods.

In the video, family members describe the bear as “huge.”

“This is what happens in the Poconos,” said Homer. “Lock your car doors, the bears don’t care around here!”

According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, most bear encounters in Pennsylvania occur when bears learn there is easy-to-obtain food where people live. Credit: Katie Homer via Storyful

Video transcript

- Can you grab my phone, Dad? Because I can't go out there and I can't really see.

- It looks like he's back in the front seat.

- I think-- well I think he knows that's where he got in.

[TAPPING]

Wow, he's just going through the [MUTED] seats, man.

- Well, the passenger seat is--

- Be careful.

- The passenger seat is down.

- It's lounged?

- Yeah.

- Oh, so he broke that.

- Just keep tapping on there. [INAUDIBLE]

- [INAUDIBLE]. You're going to drop your phone.

- Wow, you see his nose?

[TAPPING]

- Oh, his whole head is right there.

- Wow. He's huge.

- Huge. He is not small.

- He is huge.

- Oh my--

- He is not small at all.

- Oh, my god.

- I think your best bet is the passenger side because his head is right there.

- I don't know. I have a tarp, if you want to tarp the windows, maybe?

- Then I can't see in.

- Right.

- Yes, yep, you kind of blind yourself too, that's true.

- The problem is, he's right-- he's sitting on your center console. So I'm coming around this side and his head's--

- Just moving back and forth?

- Just go in there.

- Break a window.

[TAPPING]

[THUD]

- Oh.

- Wow.

- That's a big dude.

- He's huge, so--

- You see the size of his head?

- Yeah, he's huge.

- He's fat. He's fat.

- He gets out, I'm booking.

- I don't blame you.

- You jump on top of the car, I'm not kidding.

- Now he's in the door over here.

- No, wait, you better run up here. You come in the house.

- I think he broke the windshield.

- Is it shattered?

- Yeah.

- No, it's just water.

- No?

- He's just following the light. Do you guys have another flashlight, by any chance?

- [INAUDIBLE], go look.

- AJ, where's the light?

[DOOR OPENING]

- Oh, crap.

- Come on.

- Oh, now he don't want to get out.

- Oh, god.

[SCREAMING]

- Oh, he's out.

- Wow, he's big. Holy [MUTED].

- He's huge.

- Well, now go check your car.

- Dude, it's slimy in there.

[CLAPPING]

- Oh.

- I want to go with him, but I can't.

- Thank God it wasn't our good car, that's all I got to say.

- Oh my god.

- Well I got--