Bear that damaged luxury cars was actually a person in a costume | Hacker News Reader

Bear that damaged luxury cars was actually a person in a costume

apnews.com

17 pointsgeox14 comments

Not enough context to determine if this person is my hero or not yet.

why would the owner of a roll-royce want to do this elaborate con ? just sell the damn vehicle

the original link is here: https://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2... and the linked video footage is here: https://vimeo.com/1029340693/2294a5bc86

2:30 shows a bear entering a car - now, unless bears have achieved AGI this seems implausible.

This doesn’t add up to me either. These are incredibly expensive cars that will bring in a lot of money from just selling them. If you rip up the interior, you’re only going to get what it actually costs to put the vehicle back into sellable shape- and then there will be a record of the claim so buyers will check it was done properly.

It’s not even a good bear costume- it is immediately obviously a person.

So the real mystery is how did a group of people this dumb, with apparently no valuable skills or work ethic end up with these 3 expensive cars?

Bears are intelligent and can easily do things like open car doors. It is very hard to engineer bear proof food and garbage containers that humans can still operate.

we fail to perceive the intelligence of the animals around us.

I recent had a tiny hole in my floor through which mice came in (via the crawlspace) and foraged for food in the kitchen - evidenced by their droppings.

Mice/Rats have co-evolved with humans to be very intelligent, and the traps I laid out could not catch them - perhaps because i did not wear gloves, and they could perceive human scent. They could navigate paths around the home in complete darkness return back via the entrypoint. amazing.

I am convinced they can communicate with each-other, and they are very social, and are learning machines just as we humans are. I am also convinced that they are explorers - exploring the space around them for food using their keen sense of smell.

The way I got rid of them is not by trapping them, but by removing all exposed food sources, and blocking entrypoints, so they learnt that that it was pointless to come in.

My favorite con is leaving for sale far parked on the side of a busy street for weeks at a time. While the owner crosses their fingers and prays for it to be rear ended.

Bears can get in cars. Keep your doors locked in bear country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRuQoGJoAfw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQmfEclBCMw

Here’s an interesting, somewhat-related tidbit I learned recently: in Churchill, Manitoba (the polar bear capital of the world), it is customary for locals to leave their car doors unlocked in case someone needs a quick escape from a polar bear.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churchill,_Manitoba#Polar_bear...

A photographer acquaintance said that when you go deep into polar bear country always carry a handgun in case a polar bear attacks. For yourself. Unlike other bears, polar bears hunt humans. And like other bears (and dogs) they just eat, they don't kill unless it's an accident.

Pepper spray might be more effective than a gun if you're not proficient.

For a polar bear? I guess in theory it’s possible but I’ve never heard bear spray recommended for polar bears.

If you want to go backpacking in Svalbard I’ve heard you need to rent a gun and also set up alarm trip wires around your camp. Polar bears are built different.

Small sample size for polar bears in this study but it has been found to be effective.

https://www.bearwise.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/efficacy...

With a guns you might need one or more well placed shots, and if you're not trained and proficient, that will be almost impossible if you find yourself in a situation where a bear is charging at you. Pepper spray can be a lot easier to spray in a bear's face in such a situation.

Might be best to have both spray and a gun handy, though.

Pepper spray is ineffective at ending the suffering of being eaten alive.

I first read it the wrong way, as if I had to bear that damaged luxury cars was actually a person in a costume, strange headline.

I would say it counts as a garden path sentence, much like "The old man the boat" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence

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