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Smarter than your average bear? This one knows how to open car doors

The close encounter with the bear were captured on video.
Credit: Cindy Dale Jenkins
The image on the left was from one bear encounter. Video captured it get into a pickup. The photo on the right is from a different day when a bear got inside another truck. Tourists have been warned to keep their vehicle doors locked.

GATLINBURG, Tenn. -- A Gatlinburg cabin rental office was visited by a bear on Wednesday that eventually found its way to into a coworkers car while looking for food.

Cindy Dale Jenkins, who posted a video of the bear prowling around the Chalet Village rental office, said that a coworker first spotted the bear coming across the street toward the office on Wednesday.

"A coworker saw the bear coming toward the office from across the street," Jenkins wrote in an email. "We weren't actually scared but we know to keep our distance. We always get excited when there is a bear sighting."

Credit: Cindy Dale Jenkins
The image on the left was from one bear encounter. Video captured it get into a pickup. The photo on the right is from a different day when a bear got inside another truck. Tourists have been warned to keep their vehicle doors locked.

The video shows the bear searching the outside of the office before approaching and flawlessly opening the door to assistant manager Ken Webster's truck. In the video, Webster and others open the office door to shout at the bear, but their efforts did little to scare it away.

"The bear was in the truck for only a few minutes," Jenkins said. "He walked over and opened the truck door like a pro, it amazed us all. There were two other bears but they kept their distance."

Jenkins also sent the News Sentinel a picture of another bear comfortably sitting the drivers seat of one of the company's vehicles that she said was taken on Thursday.

"We always tell our guests to lock their car doors, we should have reminded ourselves," she added. "We also remind them to not feed the bears, be aware that the bears are present and that they are in the (bears') habitat."

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