Bears break into Coquitlam family's car and garage, rifling through unnoticed

Photo: CTV News

Bear spotted on CCTV footage rummaging through the car

A Coquitlam family got a bit of a shock Thursday morning, after finding out a couple of bears had broken into their car and garage, helping themselves to crumbs under the car seat.

Sean McQuillan and his family told CTV News Vancouver that they woke up to a large mess in their front yard and didn’t know what had happened.

Multiple missed calls and messages from his neighbourhood WhatsApp group and police had come in overnight.

The family discovered that around 3 a.m. that morning, two bears found their way into the car in their driveway and somehow managed to open the garage door.

“My son here was probably playing with the keys and left it unlocked by accident,” McQuillan said.

Even with two bears rifling through their garage and RCMP vehicles pulling up at their house, the family slept through everything.

“I’m just shocked that we slept through it with a baby and a toddler and two dogs,” said Heather McQuillan. “It was quite a commotion out here.”

The two hungry bears opened a number of the car doors appearing to look for food.

“They had lifted up the car seat in the middle and ripped it and shredded it to try and get at the little crumbs that he left underneath, that I had no idea were even there,” Sean said.

More rips were found inside the car, on the driver’s and back seats. Sean was surprised most by the fact that the bears managed to lift the garage door.

“This was a coordinated bearglury,” he added.

The weather stripping was torn off the bottom of the garage door and the bears found the garbage that is stored at the back of the garage.

“They didn’t break anything but they did find the garbage,” he said.

The family had another bear incident just 10 days before.

“We were leaving, I had the kids in tow, car seat in my arm, and I open my door and I came within two or three feet. There was a mom bear and her cub right there,” Heather said.

Conservation officers told CTV News it’s likely that whatever attracted the bears to their neighbourhood, probably wasn’t coming from the family’s house since they hadn’t left any food out.

But everyone is reminded once again to secure garbage and not leave attractants out.

The two bears in this case were gone by the time police arrived.

“I wouldn’t want anything to happen to the bears. Obviously we’re in their neighbourhood as much as anything else,” said McQuillan, “I hope they find some other food so they don’t keep coming back.”.

The family notes that bear sightings are common in their area.

“We respect the fact that we’re kind of in the bears’ … home and we definitely don’t want bears to be terminated or anything like that,” Heather said.

- With files from CTV News Vancouver