Lake Tahoe Bear Gets Stuck In Family’s Prius

September 5, 2011 10:54 PM

Reporting Steve Large

PLEASANTON (CBS13) – A Pleasanton family vacationing in west Lake Tahoe watched in amazement as a bear got into their Toyota Prius, took it for a ride down the driveway and tore it to pieces recently.

Brian McCarthy, Cece McCarthy and their son Dylan woke up in their Lake Tahoe cabin in the middle of the night to some strange growling, and what turned out to be the sounds of the bear in their car.

They peered out the window only to see a black bear that somehow managed to climb completely inside the car and couldn’t get out. The family watched as the confused bear shredded their beloved Prius to bits in an attempt to break free.

“It’s amazing how strong that bear was,” said Cece.

Somehow in its struggle, the bear even managed to take the car on a wild, albeit short, ride.

“In the chaos of him thrashing around in the car, he pulled back the gear shift, which is a pretty hard task to do,” said Dylan.

“All of the sudden we look out the window again and the car is gone, the bear is down the driveway – we have this steep driveway coming out of our cabin – he’s down the driveway across the street,” said Cece.

Incredibly, the bear ended up knocking the car in neutral, causing it to roll down the McCarthys’ driveway, over several boulders, only stopping when it slammed into a neighbor’s front porch.

“These boulders are huge and to have him flying over these boulders, it was just like, whoa,” said Cece.

The astonished family watched for nearly 30 minutes as the bear struggled to get out.

By the time sheriff’s deputies arrived, the bear was gone. A deputy filed the incident as a bear burglary.

Burglary – by a bear. May this Prius rest in pieces.

“He did steal our car,” said Dylan. “He just left it across the street. It wasn’t hard to find.”

The McCarthys have already looked into purchasing a new Prius, but they don’t have any plans to return to Lake Tahoe any time soon.

Yao T Saelee

hope they have bear insurance
Rusty

Anyone who believes this is naive. Sounds like insurance scam to me.
Kitty

Hey, there’s no call for that. Be nice. You wouldn’t say that to his face, don’t say it here. Otherwise you end up being the a-hole.
pynaetlb

I can bear-ly believe it.
pingish

Uhm… at least on my Prius, you need the engine on in order to put it in neutral. Which means you need the Bluetooth key practically inside the car and the bear needed the dexterity to have pushed the power button and THEN flail to knock it into neutral.

Something is fishy with this story.
T

Did you bother to look at the picture? That Prius is from about ten years ago. Probably not the same as your Prius, shelock.
kelly65

What kind of car was that? A peenus? humm. never heard of it
Charless Mikesells

Even nature hates priuses.
StupFD

They should have bought a Nissan Leaf. They would have walked away with a big hug from a Polar Bear.
Larry Brown

Yea not many cars that I know of that can move from park to neutral without the key. I could be wrong but sounds fishy to me.
names

It’s how we have our fun!
Donald

Maybe the bear is from Detroit.
Audrey Durel

Thats what I thought too. They watched for 30 minutes without video taping it? Hmmm..
jackie

Having seen how a bear can get into a car I believe every word. Those tiny cars made out of tin foil and plastic do not have a chance if a bear smells somethig inside it wants. Bears are “very” distructive critters.
al

we had a bear break into 2 cars here in my hood in truckee, it’s a known fact up here that if you leave food in your car the bears may break in to get it. I’d say these tourists left some sort of junk food in the car, though they don’t say anything about it, no doubt there was some sort of bait or there wouldn’t be a bear going in the car….
snopowpony

I agree, I have a feeling these people left something in the car they shouldn’t have. Anyone who lives in Bear Country knows that unless you want your car destroyed, do not leave any food, drinks, or scented items (such as lotion) inside the car.
Jojo

Obviously you have never been to Tahoe and had any encounters with the bears. Bears can and do break into houses, cars, and refrigerators. Where food is concerned they go where they please. Besides a bear leaves lots of hair behind and this bear made a complete mess inside the car. The cops there are NOT stupid and know what a true bear encounter looks like. If it is a stick it is very easy to knock it out of gear.
Dr. Von Tigger

I think it was a shark. There have been some sightings around Lake Tahoe. And not the hockey team either.
Kim G

You are absolutely right about Bears in Lake Tahoe ! I’ve seen many …… and they will break into anything that has food in it
Irish Cornaire

Bears are known for breaking into cars even in Yosemite State Park,and the car is an old model so I do not believe this is a fake story.
beardetective

That bear could start that car moving down the driveway without the car being turned on and with the brakes on to boot. Bears are very determined and usually get what they want it could probably push the car over trying to get in it. There are two people here with different aliases who always want to blame victims for some God only knows why reason.
http://www.personal-injury-san-francisco.net/blog/2011/joy-ride-bear-carjacks-crashes-prius-at-west-lake-tahoe-cabin-video/ Joy Ride: Bear Carjacks, Crashes Prius at West Lake Tahoe Cabin

[...] “These boulders are huge and to have him flying over these boulders, it was just like, whoa,” Cece McCartney told CBS News. [...]
Set Go

They left FOOD IN THEIR CAR. And this is possible insurance scam–food left on purpose to cause bear damage and collect money. Disgusting idiots, they try to hurt black bears, how many more of these jerks are going to be out there, hitting bears with their cars, leaving their food?
Set Go

And “Yosemite State Park”… where would that be? You don’t know a thing about bears or parks, so don’t post on subject you know nothing about.