Family of Bears Attempts to Rescue Cub From Dumpster, Police Swoop in to Help

In the early 2000s animated movie Brother Bear, Kenai, who was magically turned into a bear, gets stuck in a trap. Real bear Koda attempts to help out, but quickly concludes based on animal logic that “the only way to get down is to chew your own foot off.” You can imagine, then, that the family of a bear cub would have a difficult time trying to rescue the little guy from a dumpster, and that’s exactly what we witnessed in Northern California last week, when an attempted rescue of a cub by its mother and sibling was caught on tape by the Placer County Sheriff's Office.

The trapped cub and family members were found outside of the Kings Beach motel on a Tuesday morning. The free sibling cub was standing on the back of its mother, hoping to I guess… reach a paw in and pull him out? That’s the thing -- bears are kind of dumb. The police knew it was time to step in. 

In the video (shown above), an officer from the Placer County Sheriff’s office began approaching with his car to move the distressed family away. 

“Go on, git,” he said. The bears wandered semi-aimlessly. “No, don’t go that way.” 

Once the scene was cleared, one of the deputies opened the lid of the dumpster and placed a ladder inside. The cub climbed up, hesitated at the top, and made the daring leap. Then our brave little dude quickly trotted off to the woods to reunite with his family. 

No word on whether or not the cub ran off and got into full Koda character, singing, “Tell everybody I'm on my way! New friends and new places to see! With blue skies ahead, yes, I'm on my way!”

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Ruby Anderson is a News Writer for Thrillist.