Earlier this month, Jose Luis Ramos Jr. and a few of his friends decided to spend a relaxing weekend at a cabin in Asheville, North Carolina.
But the getaway wasn’t quite as tranquil as they were hoping it would be.
Evidently, as the group pulled up to the cabin in their cars, a certain someone in the surrounding woods was taking notice — and saw an opportunity. It was a local bear. He decided to move in for a closer look to see if, by chance, they’d come carrying treats.
While the friends settled in, the bear took the opportunity to rummage through one of the vehicles, but apparently found it empty of food. So, he moved on to the next one — a shiny silver Mercedes.
By then, Ramos and his friends realized a car thief was afoot.
While the group looked on, the bear casually opened the car’s passenger door, just like a human. He’d done this before, it seemed — but then he heard something that stopped him in his tracks.
“I started to scream,” Ramos told The Dodo.
And sure enough, that did the trick:
Upon hearing Ramos’ primal scream, the bear abandoned his mission — slowly backing away having been caught red-handed. (There was no food in the car, anyway.)
The Mercedes was safe, and thanks to that nonconfrontational approach to warding him off, the bear and cabin-goers were all safe, too. Yelling is actually a recommended bear-deterrent technique in some situations, as black bears are typically easy to startle.
“That was the only thing I remember from the Boy Scouts,” Ramos said. “[The bear] was more scared than I was.”
Fortunately, after that, the bear left Ramos and his friends alone for the remainder of their trip. But the unexpected encounter is one they won’t soon forget.
“It’s definitely going to be hard to top that memory,” Ramos said.