Video shows the nerve-racking moment police freed a bear trapped inside a car near Lake Tahoe

• Residents of a neighborhood near Lake Tahoe found a bear stuck inside their car.

• A team from the local sheriff's office devised a plan to safely release it.

• The video shows the bear's escape and the damage it left behind.

Car break-ins are not unusual. But it's not every day that the culprit is a large bear.

That's exactly what happened in a neighborhood near Lake Tahoe in Nevada on Sunday.

A team from the Washoe County Sheriff's Office found themselves having to devise a makeshift plan to help the bear escape without endangering themselves or anyone else.

A video of the rescue shows deputies tying a rope to the door handle of a black SUV before moving a safe distance away from the car. The officers pulled the rope to open the car, allowing the intruder to escape.

The video shows a large bear jumping out and running toward the woods. Footage from inside the car showed how badly it was destroyed, most likely from the bear attempting to escape. It was unclear how the bear first got inside the car.

"Spring is an active time for our Tahoe bear population and a good reminder to be bear-aware when enjoying the beautiful outdoors," the sheriff's office warned.

This isn't the first incident of a bear breaking into a car. Last month, a Canadian woman woke up to find that a bear had broken into her car. That bear drank 69 of the 72 cans of soda she had stored inside.

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