A Canadian woman says she woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of a black bear crushing and drinking dozens of cans of soda she had left in her car overnight, according to video shared by CBC News.
Sharon Rosel of Earls Cove, British Columbia, said she was woken up by her dog at around 3 a.m. April 13 and looked outside to find a black bear had broken into her car, CBC News reported Monday. The bear was surrounded by shattered glass from her car window, according to the outlet.
A woman on the Sunshine Coast was shocked to find a bear had turned her Suzuki into its very own cooler. It downed 69 cans of soda in the vehicle, but left three diet pops untouched. pic.twitter.com/t7spxFca7r
— Global BC (@GlobalBC) April 18, 2023
Rosel said she left 72 cans of soda inside the car, which she had purchased for her food truck business the night before. She said she deals with bears on a regular basis because she lives in an isolated area. She is usually careful not to leave food in her vehicle, though she didn’t expect bears to be drawn to soda, according to the outlet.
“I’ve been around bears since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, and I have never seen them go after pop,” she told CBC.
Rosel said she stood on her balcony for about an hour and a half and watched as the bear used its teeth to open the cans of soda and slurp out the liquid. “You could hear him slurping it the whole time, and he didn’t break them open with his claws, which you’d think he would. He used his teeth every time,” she says in the video. (RELATED: Black Bear Opens Vehicle’s Door And Jumps Right In)
The bear reportedly started with orange soda, then moved on to cola and root beer before stopping at the cans of diet soda. Rosel said the bear drank 69 cans total, leaving only three cans of diet soda untouched.
She tried throwing cold water on the bear from her balcony to get him to stop but was unsuccessful, according to CBC. Attempting to reason with the animal verbally also had little effect, Rosel joked.
“I tried psyching him out by telling him I was a bear hunter. That didn’t do anything either, so I had to stand by and just watch him devour my car,” she told the outlet.
In addition to breaking her car window and spilling soda in the interior of the vehicle, Rosel said the bear ripped into the leather seats and broke the window roller handle from standing on it. She is hoping insurance will cover the damage, the outlet reported.