Imagine looking in your rearview mirror and seeing a bear peering back at you from your trunk.
That’s exactly what happened to one UCF student when he visited Rock Springs in Apopka. Jonathan Jenkins, a sophomore majoring in aerospace engineering, was visiting the park to go tubing with his girlfriend when a black bear hopped into the open trunk of his car.
Jenkins and his girlfriend had rented tubes from down the road but couldn’t fit them in their car, so they shoved them in the trunk and left it ajar.
They parked and heard residents yelling about what they thought was a deer, but later found out was a bear.
“The bear was about 30 feet away going through the trash,” Jenkins said. “It was starting to draw a crowd.”
He said that all the guests seemed to be really curious about the bear and not the least bit afraid until a child screamed and startled the bear, which attracted the animal’s attention and scared onlookers.
“A couple kids started screaming and it really caught the bear’s attention,” Jenkins said. “The bear started to walk over and that’s when I thought ‘uh that’s not good’ and he kept getting closer so we jumped in the car.”
That’s when Jenkins says the real curious part of this interaction happened.
“I’m looking in my mirror saying, ‘where’s the bear, where’s the bear,’ and I can’t see it, but my girlfriend does and says ‘It’s right behind your car! It’s right behind your car! It’s in your car!’” Jenkins said. “I look in my rearview mirror and see the face of this bear, and see him jump in my trunk with the tube.”
Jenkins then put the car in reverse and braked in an effort to get the bear out of his trunk. He said the bear got scared from the braking and ran off.
“I literally drove with a bear in my car,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins said that he finds the situation humorous now but at the time, he was extremely frightened. His girlfriend, Taylor Avery, said it was the first time she’d seen a bear and it was terrifying.
“When we got out a people were saying ‘That was funny’ and ‘That was awesome’ and I was like ‘Yeah, awesome and scary as hell,’” Jenkins said. “It’s funny cause I remember that bear looking 10 times larger than the photo shows,” Jenkins said.
The near-miss didn’t detour Jenkins and his girlfriend from having a great time at the park.
“We ended up having a great day,” Jenkins said. “I’d definitely still go back there today.”
Jenkins took the majority of the photos of the bear but had an onlooker send the photo of the bear jumping into his trunk to his phone.
