Bears Open Unlocked Car Doors, Eat 49 Bars of Chocolate

Asheville, North Carolina news station WLOS reports that Lilly Thurmond was sitting at home on Sunday when she saw a bear and three cubs in her driveway. Bears are common where she lives, the station reported, so she didn’t pay much attention—until she saw a door to her Toyota Prius open and heard growling.

Thurmond, 16, didn’t take long to realize that she had a box of chocolate bars that she was selling for a high-school fundraiser in the backseat—you know, those really good ones that only cost a dollar and are so skinny, you barely feel guilty for eating four in a row. Yeah, those.

The bears certainly didn’t feel any guilt, with WLOS reporting that they ate 49 of the chocolate bars before leaving the trashed car behind. Thurmond recorded the candy binge from inside of her house, in a video that smoothly transitions from her thoroughly freaking out to casually accepting her reality:

WLOS reports that Thurmond’s mother, Kim Peck, said the insurance will cover the punctures the bears made to the seats, but didn’t mention who owes on the chocolate tab. From the story:

One of the bears, she said, got into the front passenger seat and got stuck for a moment, unable to wedge itself out.

“So, her car was not locked,” Thurmond’s mother Kim Peck said.

Peck said she wasn’t mad at her daughter for leaving the candy in the car, just thankful Thurmond was in the house when the bears arrived and helped themselves to the chocolate. Wrappers from the candy bars are pretty much all that was left of the chocolate after the bears somehow managed to open the wrappers and eat the candy. […]

“I think I had probably sold like 10 before they got hold of it,” she said.

That left about 50. Thurmond found one dark chocolate bar untouched in the car.

Peck told WLOS that she thinks they all learned a lesson with this one, which is to “keep your doors locked because bears know how to open them up.”