Never a dull moment in the auto body repair world. A custome

Jun 3 (edited)

Never a dull moment in the auto body repair world. A customer brought in her suv with an unusual problem. She left it sitting in her driveway with the tailgate open after unloading some things from the back. A while later, she remembered and closed the gate with the key fob. Just one little problem. There was a bear inside it!

1 / 6

Jun 3, 2026

Post your reply…

Replies (20)

· Jun 3

I assume a black bear?

1.  Black fight back.
2. Brown lay down.
3. White good night.

Not sure you guys have brown or white in Conn.   I'm surprised  she didn't get a video.

· Jun 3

An altercation with a bear of any color will leave your shorts the same color.

She didn’t know it was in there until the alarm started going off and she saw it moving in there. I guess she must have quickly reopened the gate so it could get out because it did surprisingly little damage. Ripped the interior trim off the tailgate on its way out.

· Jun 3

Crazy!!!

· Jun 3

It takes some doing to remove these trim panels without first taking out the screws on the grab handles, but this bear managed.

· Jun 4

Wow. Are there a lot of bears in your neck of the woods?

· Jun 4

"Hey human, want your trash back? Why don't you just come on over and take it"

My (new) neighbor's trash. Usually the newcomers learn pretty quickly...

(edited)

· Jun 4

What is with all the bears in Conn? We have deer literally every day running through the yard. Coyote pack going down the drive in broad daylight once, 50/50 that you hear them freaking out at night. Saw what looked like a wolf just past dawn one morning. It was big. That was a little scary.

But never any bears.

· Jun 4

They’re just like raccoons down here at this point. Absolutely no fear of anything aside from a dog occasionally chasing them up a tree. I’ve had them come through the yard while I’ve been running a leaf blower. Last year, sitting in the woods during deer season, I had one walk within fifteen yards of me and just stand there giving me the hairy eyeball.

· Jun 4

I think their habitat is the west end of the state. We've had them in the cental-west and southwest (probably also the northwest) although fortunately I've never run into them in the woods.

· Jun 4

They are around here so much I don't bother to take pics anymore. Mary snapped a pic of me weed whacking while an adolescent watched me. He hung out under a tree across the street every night for a month or so! Wish I could find that pic...

· Jun 4

We do get the occasional goat passing through. From this afternoon.

· Jun 4

Do you have any shrubs left in the yard after they get out?

· Jun 4

Funny (sort of) story about that. We had a pair (the female died 2 years ago) and when they were young we would let them roam around the yard. They would mostly stay within 50 feet of where ever you were. And one day we were not paying attention too much and the male got at something he should not have. 5 day stay at Tufts Animal hospital and a bill I will not publicly give the number on and he was good as new.
We learned after that to only let them eat natural plantings. Any ornamental in the yard could kill them. I have an app on my phone where you can take a picture of a plant and it will tell you what it is and how toxic. We have a lot of killer plants.
A goat is like a dumb dog. They are not stupid and they can be semi-interesting. But I have to muck the stall once a day and feed him twice. This allows me to tell everyone I'm farmer.

(edited)

· Jun 4

Goats are fun but they are a little stupid in that they’ll absolutely everything but nice green grass. My aunt keeps several goats for the summers from the local high school that has a farming program. A couple years ago I cleared about an acre worth of saplings and brush and I was bringing it to them by the truckload. They were loving it. For some reason, beech saplings were their plfavorite

(edited)

· Jun 5

@alsancle hopefully at the village assessor’s office, your tax bill reflects the agricultural focus of your house, I mean, Farm.

(edited)

· Jun 5

I've considered that approach John. But you need to actual have a semi-working farm and sell a minimum amount of product.

· Jun 5

Black bear population in parts of New England has exploded. Much like the deer. For the most part they are harmless other than they will destroy your garage can if there is food in it. Or the interior of your SUV when you leave it open.

· Jun 5

We sometimes name the repeat guests. Big boy was fun to watch but eventually moved on

· Jun 5

I had to put a new roof on a car one time because the owner left a bag of bird seed in the trunk and the bear climbed on and caved it in trying to get at it. They’re a menace.

· Jun 11

YouTube ↗