Bear tears through Shelby Cobra in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A North Carolina man plans to leave the dents in his rare vintage car for a while to relish the Alaska vacation story behind it. It’s not every day that a pricey collector’s treasure is damaged by a bear breaking into it to steal cookies.

“It’s barroom talk,” Tom Cotter of Davidson, N.C., said Monday shortly before he was scheduled to fly home from Anchorage after he toured the state for two weeks in his red 1965 289 Shelby Cobra with several other car collectors.

Cotter’s car sustained major rips to the vinyl roof and dents on the body when the bear broke into it last week at Alyeska Ski Resort, 38 miles south of Anchorage. He learned about the break-in when one of his friends texted him a photo of the damaged car the morning it was discovered.

No words were necessary for Cotter, who rushed out to assess the damages.

“This car will forever be known as the bear Cobra,” said Cotter, 64, an author who writes about finding rare vintage cars. He also has a YouTube channel called The Barn Find Hunter.

Fellow traveler, Woody Woodruff of Charlotte, N.C., had left a package of Fig Newtons behind the driver’s seat, and the cookies were missing after the break-in.

“I felt kind of bad, but Tom’s taking it well,” Woodruff said laughing as he stood a few feet from his friend Monday.