Viral TikTok shows the shocking moment a bear crawled out of a car as driver opened door to scare it away

• A viral TikTok video shows a man opening a car door and a bear crawling out of it.
• The TikToker captured videos of how he says the bear destroyed the interior of the car.
• The TikToker's video of the bear exiting the car gained more than 20 million views in one week.

A TikTok video of a person opening a car door and a bear crawling out is going viral.

TikTok user Joseph Deel, who goes by @bear_inna_car on the app, is shown opening the driver's door to a white Nissan vehicle while friends in the background yell, scream, and wave to scare the bear away. The bear steps out of the car, seems to look around, and then crawls off.

Since the video was posted on July 12, it's gained 20.3 million views and 2.9 million likes.

@bear_inna_car ♬ original sound - bear_inna_car

In later videos posted on the TikTok account, Deel shows viewers the damage that he says was done by the bear. Deel said in one TikTok video that the incident happened in the mountains in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where black bears are a common sighting.

Deel told viewers that he left the car unlocked, and later his group of friends heard honking from a nearby car.

"We both go outside, and as soon as we open the door, we can see my car just moving like crazy, like there's definitely something in there," Deel said in another TikTok video.

Deel continued in a TikTok video that at first, he wasn't sure what was in the car since fog was covering the windows, but he quickly learned it was a black bear. The bear proceeded to destroy the interior of the car, which Deel shows viewers in a video captioned "an un-bear-leivable amount of damage." In the video, the car door's paneling has been ripped off and the entire interior roof of the car has fallen off.

When asked about why he opened the car door, Deel told TikTok users that his mind was "on adrenaline" and that he "didn't think about the danger of us being that close to a bear."

While viewers seemed shocked by the video, bears often break into cars in some regions of the United States, according to the National Park Service.

"When bears become habituated to human food and garbage, they can become aggressive, dangerous, and may break into cars, RVs, and tents," the National Park Service's website states.

Colorado saw nearly 500 reported car break-ins caused by bears between 2019 and 2020, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which advises people to keep their cars locked and clean of all attractants, like food and garbage.

Deel said in another TikTok video that due to the damage caused by the bear, he had to abandon his car on the interstate. Then, he said in the same video, thieves stole parts of the car, making it even more unsalvageable.

Joseph Deel did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.