A black bear has been found dead inside a car in Colorado, with authorities warning drivers to lock their vehicles.
The 250-pound animal entered the unlocked vehicle in central Colorado Springs before destroying the car's interior. Unable to leave once inside, the bear died in the summer heat Colorado Parks and Wildlife said.
The huge bear’s body lay in the car for days before it was finally discovered, the agency added.
“Typically what happens is they pull the door open, get in, get their food, and then they leave,” CPW Wildlife Officer Travis Sauder explained to The Colorado Springs Gazette. “But sometimes the door closes behind them, and they have trouble figuring out how to get out.”
Images shared by the CPW show the car’s battered interior, with fur and dirt left across the seats.
In another photograph, the bear’s body can be seen curled up in the front passenger seat. As with many black bears, its fur appears to be closer to brown in color.
Accompanying the post was the hashtag: “BeBearWise.”
The agency also warned drivers to keep their cars’ doors and windows locked, while urging them to clear out any trash or food left inside.
On the CPW’s website, the agency warns that bears can overcome their inherent wariness towards humans when they sniff out food. That can lead them to destroy property or even become a threat to people’s safety.
Bears that become “habituated,” or, in other words, lose their fear of humans, often have to be killed, the CPW says.
The agency said that, from January 1 to August 13, it had received 6,129 reports of bear sightings and conflicts. That’s almost double the number from the same period last year, which was 3,115. The total number of reports in 2025 stood at 5,299.
“This year, because of the low snowpack, some late freezes, we are in what we call a ‘food failure’ year,” Sauder explained to The Gazette. “The natural food sources that bears are used to finding aren’t there. It has really increased the bear-human interactions over the course of the year.”
The incident in Colorado Springs follows a similar event in Manitou Springs on July 29, where police responded to reports of a bear being trapped inside a vehicle.
A spokesperson for the Manitou Springs Police Department confirmed on Facebook that the local fire department assisted them in trying to remove the bear. No-one was injured during the incident, police said.
