As if Hurricane Florence wasn’t enough of a catastrophe for the people of North Carolina couple, one local couple also had to deal with an angry bear destroying their car.

Not too long after the hurricane came and went, Nicole Minkin Lissenden and husband Alex Lissenden were glad to have escaped with not as much damage as they anticipated. Little did they know, their family van would soon be totally wrecked by a wild animal.

It all started when a friend of Nicole’s had wandered by and noticed that Nicole’s van door was open and there was some trash on the ground nearby. She let her know, and, while Nicole thought it was a bit strange, she tried not to think too much into it and closed the door and went on about her day.

When she came back about a half hour later, the biggest surprise of her life was awaiting her in that van. She saw that the widows were foggy with paw prints on them. Apparently a bear had opened the door and unlocked the van—something bears in the area have been learning to do—and she had accidentally closed him in without knowing it!

And honestly, the bear wasn’t too forgiving about it. “The bear was getting more and more upset and thrashing around a lot, and that set off the alarm and started honking the horn,” Nicole said. He was completely destroying the interior of the car in his panic, and Nicole wasn’t about to open the door and have the bear destroy her too!

That’s when her husband stepped in to help. Alex attempted to open the doors with a remote control, but it turned out the bear had damaged the door in his rage of fury and the door kept closing.

“After the automatic doors failed to open, my husband had to unlock it with the key. The bear found another way out. We’re alive—our van, not so much!”

To see how the bear finally exited the car—which is no longer—check out this shocking video below!

Have you ever had an encounter with a bear like this? What would you have done in Nicole’s situation?