Tennessee bears break into SUV of Florida family fleeing Irma

Sept. 28 (UPI) -- A Florida family that evacuated to Tennessee to avoid Hurricane Irma ended up facing a different kind of disaster -- bears ransacking their SUV.

Travis Gonzalez of Boynton Beach posted a video to Facebook showing the fate that befell the inside of his family's SUV when they traveled to Pigeon Forge, Tenn., to wait out Hurricane Irma.

The video, filmed Sept. 11, shows Gonzalez open a back door of the vehicle and quickly sprint away before a family of bears jumped out from the now-open door.

"I just went fishing that morning, so they probably smelled some of this fishing stuff in the back maybe," Gonzalez told WECT-TV of what drew the bears to his vehicle.

"They locked themselves in the car and they just went crazy," he said.

Gonzalez said the bears ripped out part of his dashboard, broke the rear view mirror off the windshield, broke the door locks, and ripped the front seats to shreds.

The Florida man said fleeing after opening the door was the fastest he's ever moved.

"Definitely adrenaline was working," he said.