For the past couple of weeks, vehicles on Main Street, Union Street, Second Avenue, at Fort Seward, and even at the ferry terminal were reported to have opened doors. While the phenomenon could be explained by an autophile ghost or enthusiastic prankster, officials said the most likely culprit is bears.
“I never want to say 100 percent, but I want to say it’s bears and not humans,” said Josh Dryden, a sergeant with the Haines Police Department. He said that there haven’t been any reported injuries or stolen objects, but plenty of damage to vehicles.
The string of break-ins is forcing wildlife troopers to search for the bear with the intent to “dispatch” it – in other words kill it.
Dryden said he found his own personal truck parked with one door on each side opened behind the Public Safety Building. Other police officers had their cars opened or damaged.
Carl Koch, a wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game who has been managing the Haines area since 2015, said bears breaking into cars “is becoming more common, which is unfortunate.”
Dryden said he’s never had this many reports of bears getting into cars before. “These bears are on a mission,” he said.
What typically happens is people leave something in the car, bears smell it and get into the vehicle, and learn to associate cars with potential rewards. With the newer models of cars, bears have been able to open doors by pulling the latch with their mouths or sticking their paws in the handle.
Dryden said the department is working with Koch and wildlife trooper Colin Nemec to find the bear or bears opening car doors. After they find and positively identify the bear, officials say the plan is to kill it.
Nemec said they don’t know if it is one bear or multiple bears, but the photos and videos they’ve received have shown a brown bear.
“Our job is to make sure if public safety is in danger, that the bear is behaving itself,” he said.
Despite how many cars have been opened and how dispersed around town they’ve been, Koch said it’s possible that the bear is acting alone. This time of year, bears go into hyperphagia, which means they are fattening themselves up for the winter. It would not be uncommon for a hungry bear to scour the area in search of food.
“If there’s stuff for them to eat, they’re going to come back to get it,” said Koch. Bears are thought to have a better sense of smell than a bloodhound,
Koch said it’s essential to get rid of food and trash in cars and to keep them clean.
“A lot of people know they live in bear country. A few that aren’t being careful make it hard on everyone else,” he said.
However, Dryden said most of the cars the department checked out have been pretty clean. “They are not vehicles overflowing with trash,” he said.
Christy Tengs Fowler, who owns the Pioneer Bar with her husband Bob, said a bear got into both of their cars after she went to the post office to pick up some packages from the food distributor. Opened car doors and white powder on the ground informed her that a bear had gotten into a case of powdered gravy mix.
“The next night it rained, and we saw three little bears lapping up the gravy on the ground,” said Fowler.
Fowler said she never locks her car, and that her husband probably didn’t lock his either, knowing that a bear could damage the car trying to break in.
Koch said he usually tells people to lock their cars, but understands the concern of not wanting your car damaged. “The bear is just going to keep moving around. If it goes to a locked car and can’t open it, it will go to an unlocked car.”
If you lock your car, the worst that can happen is a bear might break the door handle. If they can’t get in, they would just walk away. The risk of keeping cars unlocked is much higher, especially if a bear decides to snoop around and accidentally closes the door on itself. Those instances are when there is the most damage done to the bear and car.
There are rare cases where brown bears have put their claws in the doorframe and peeled a car door open, but Koch said that is only when “there is something really good inside.”
Koch does not have an estimate of the number of bears active in the area and said biologists are working on collecting that data. The bear that has been opening car doors “probably needs to be dispatched,” said Koch. “The challenge is making sure we get the right one.”
Koch encouraged residents who have photos or videos of bears opening car doors to send them to his email at [email protected].