Tahoe Bear Destroys Prius

Bear in Lake Tahoe attempts to take car on overnight joy ride.

A Pleasanton family came home from their latest trip to Tahoe with a bear of a tale.

A bear literally totaled the McCarthy family's 2002 Prius after getting stuck inside.

Brian McCarthy said he and his wife were awakened by a honking horn outside their cabin and when they investigated the source of the sound they found a very angry bear had become trapped inside their car.

"He ripped out the back seat. There's nothing left. There's nothing left inside of our Prius. Gone." Brian McCarthy said.

He said the event got even scarier when the car started rolling toward a neighbor's home.

"The car was gone. The bear's gotten the car in neutral. He just ripped the gears shift down," Cece McCarthy said.

The Prius slammed into a neighbor's front yard. A few boulders on the front lawn stopped it from hitting the house.  

That impact must have freed up something to allow the bear to espace, because the bear ran off after that and hasn't been seen since.

"There's no locking mechanism. Nothing. So he must have gone right through because there's no paneling left on the door," Brian McCarthy said.
    
The animal left its mark tearing up the nice interior into a pile of junk.

The McCarthy's said they don't have a clue why the bear entered their car in the first place. They said the only things inside the vehicle were a beach towel, some CDs and a phone charger.

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