Watch: Bear Caught Breaking Into Truck in Gatlinburg, Stealing Lunch Box

A specialty construction company from Tennessee has a viral video on its hands thanks to a remarkably agile black bear. AFS Foundation & Waterproofing Specialists caught a bear on camera as it slinked into one of their work trucks to steal a lunchbox. Thankfully, no one was hurt in this encounter – although someone may have gone hungry.

The video shows an AFS work truck parked close to a building in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, according to a report by CBS News. It is a common pickup truck with the doors closed but the windows rolled down. As you can see in the video below, the bear was able to climb through the window and find the lunchbox, then pull itself back out with impressive finesse. It was fearfully close to the building in the shot, but there was no one around to scare the predator. AFS made a joke out of the encounter when they posted the video on Facebook.

“Maybe he thought he’d bear-ly be noticed!” the company wrote. “One of our Knoxville crews returned to their truck to find everything rummaged through and a missing lunch box. After asking the homeowner to check the security footage, the culprit was found!”

In the U.S., black bears are the only bears present in the eastern part of the country, and it is not uncommon for them to range out of the wilderness and into densely-populated areas. In general, experts advise people to avoid bear encounters wherever possible. In a situation like the one above, the homeowners and the AFS crew would both have been best served by staying out of the bear’s way while it rummaged through the truck.

Unfortunately, bears that successfully find food in car, homes or businesses are extremely likely to try that strategy again according to a report by the Connecticut Department of Energy & environmental Protection. Bears who make a habit out of these kinds of excursions may eventually need to be dealt with by professionals – in some cases, even euthanized. Therefore, wildlife experts are increasingly asking people in areas with bears to practice bear safety even when they are not in the wilderness.

In this case, it looks like everyone ended up happy – at least, after the stolen lunch was replaced. You can find more tips on bear management from BearWise here.