For more than a decade, my husband and I have been taking trips to the Great Smoky Mountains, and up until two years ago, I’d never seen a bear.

Jump ahead to Labor Day weekend 2018, and there’s one in my car — well, technically not my car. It’s a rental.

How did it get there??

It opened the door

Now, I’ve heard of bears getting trapped in cars and going ballistic before, but I’d never actually seen anything like this.

Our bear seems to have learned how to open a door in a way that ensures it won’t shut on it. And it — we couldn’t tell if the animal was male or female — didn’t care one bit that there was an audience one floor above.

It just leisurely strolled around our cabin.

And, my car wasn’t the only victim. It also hit my sister’s car and tried my parents’ car. We thought all of the doors were locked, but like I said, we had a rental, so I blame the unfamiliarity of the vehicle for the oversight.

Thankfully, we won’t have any costly repair bills.

Our bear was a cool customer. The animal was polite, even gentle, as it took a look around. The only evidence of its intrusion was a dirty paw print, an empty bag with a hole in it and an open door.

Unbelievable? You bet

Without video proof, I'd have never believed a bear had been inside that car.

And I was not alone.

On Tuesday morning, the attendant at Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Springfield, where we rented the car before leaving town Friday, was stunned to hear the story and watched with genuine amazement when I showed him the video while I was returning the car. Like my family and I, he, too, was shocked that a bear could open a car door. He even told me that if the bear had damaged the vehicle, he wouldn't have held it against us. This is one of the reasons why I'm loyal to Enterprise. We've been renting from them for years.

One of the customers at the business, overhearing our conversation, asked, "is that the car from the bear video?"

Apparently, the video's been making the rounds, and this pleases me. More people need to be aware that bears can do this. They're smart, really smart.

Nature versus nurture

My family and I wondered aloud how many people have stayed overnight at the cabin where we vacationed and woke the next morning to open car doors, thinking someone had gotten inside their vehicles and rummaged around with the intent to steal. I'm fairly certain it's a high number, considering the bear tried the back passenger doors to all five of our vehicles while they were parked in the driveway.

That can't be a coincidence. It has to be a learned behavior, developed over time.

Luckily, my family is comprised of several early birds who like sunrises, and I've never been so grateful. Had they not been up, heard a noise and went to investigate, we'd have never gotten the footage we got.

There were 13 of us staying in a 3-level cabin over the weekend, and interestingly enough, it was this same group of early risers who had seen another, different bear the day before. We know it wasn't the same bear because it was tagged, and the one entering our cars was not.

'Paranormal Activity' or family trip?

On our last day at the cabin, Labor Day Monday, we waited for the bear to try our cars again close to sunrise, but it didn't show. My parents and brother seem to think it made an appearance at about 3:30 that morning. Heavy footfalls on the deck outside their bedroom window woke my parents, and my brother just happened to be in a nearby bathroom when they busted out of their room, flashlights in hand.

They heard the animal leave the deck, mess with a trash can and the barbecue grill outside, but they never actually saw it. The near-sighting was frustrating for my dad, who wasn't awake when the bear tried to break into his car the day before. He wanted to see one with his own eyes, but it just wasn't in the cards this time.

Hearing my brother tell this story at breakfast a few hours later was downright hilarious, but my brother's a pretty funny dude, if I do say so myself.

At one point over the weekend, he told me that my five-year-old daughter scared him half to death. She'd climbed out of bed in the middle of the night and ended up standing right beside his bed. He woke up and there she was, looking like something out of one of those "Paranormal Activity" movies.

She's never done anything like that at home.

It figures she'd choose to do this during one of the most memorable weekends any of us had ever experienced.

Reach Nicole Young at 615-306-3570 or nyoung@tennessean.com.