{"id":312637,"date":"2025-08-02T19:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T19:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/312637\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T19:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T19:05:11","slug":"scottish-family-lucky-to-be-alive-as-bear-climbs-into-car-in-us-holiday-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/312637\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish family ‘lucky to be alive’ as bear climbs into car in US holiday scare"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Scottish family has told how they feel “lucky to be alive” after a bear climbed into their car while they were on holiday in the US.<\/p>\n

The Ferguson family, from Airdrie, had been staying in a rental cabin in Tennessee\u2019s Great Smoky Mountains when the shocking incident unfolded on Monday, reports The Record.<\/a><\/p>\n

Grace Sloan, 18, was with her boyfriend Logan Ferguson, his parents and his aunt and uncle when the wild animal made its surprise appearance.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b> Edinburgh Murrayfield seating plan and food & drink options ahead of Oasis gigs<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b> Edinburgh ‘immersive’ experience named ‘top attraction for children’ in Scotland<\/a><\/p>\n

The family were packing up their car following a two-week road-trip across the southern states of America when the black bear climbed into the boot.<\/p>\n

Glasgow teen Grace told the Record: “I was still in my room packing up my things and I suddenly heard screams of \u2018Bear!\u2019 coming from outside.<\/p>\n

“Logan’s mum was shouting and I could see his dad Paul and his uncle Johnny in the car and a bear was right next to them.”<\/p>\n

In footage of the ordeal, Johnny is seen fleeing the 4×4 as the nosey bear hauls cases out the car before jumping in the open boot and climbing through the vehicle.<\/p>\n

But as Johnny made his escape, slamming shut the passenger door, the child lock activated, trapping Logan’s dad Paul inside.<\/p>\n

Join<\/b> Edinburgh Live’s Whatsapp Community here <\/b> <\/a> and get the latest news sent straight to your messages<\/b> <\/b><\/p>\n

Grace continued: “Paul had to climb over into the front seats to escape.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve never seen sweat come off someone like that in my life. We were all panicking not knowing what to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the bear had hurt anyone, I don\u2019t know what we would have done.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m still shocked. It could have killed one of us and Paul and Johnny are lucky to be alive in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

A video of the family’s close encounter has since racked up over one million views on TikTok.<\/p>\n

\"Logan's<\/p>\n

Logan’s dad Paul – who was stuck in the car – and his mum Laura<\/p>\n

In a bid to scare the bear away, the family can be seen triggering the car alarm.<\/p>\n

The animal eventually scarpered, leaving behind a torn hat and a hole in a suitcase.<\/p>\n

The family’s trip took them through Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, North Carolina, and Alabama. Black bears are native to the state of Tennessee and can weigh anywhere from 200-600lbs.<\/p>\n

Grace added: “We were lucky enough to see five bears on the whole trip, but the last one was by far the scariest. It was nerve wracking, but at least we all have a good story to tell.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Scottish family has told how they feel “lucky to be alive” after a bear climbed into their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[28978,114075,114078,114076,114077,70,79430,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-312637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-car","9":"tag-ferguson-family","10":"tag-grace-sloan","11":"tag-logan-ferguson","12":"tag-lucky-to-be-alive","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-scottish-family","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114960736464578547","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}