The Hurt family was out fishing in northern Wisconsin Saturday night when they saw a black bear swimming with a large jar jammed on its head.
They couldn’t believe their eyes.
The animal appeared doomed, but spoiler alert, they managed to yank the thing free.
And the best part, Tricia Hurt had the wherewithal to capture the incredible moments on video, which she posted on Facebook.
“We’ve got a bear here,” she says off camera, as the family pursues the bear across Marshmiller Lake in Chippewa County in their boat. “The poor thing has got a tub stuck on its head. Oh, he’s getting scared.”
Meanwhile, her husband, Brian, and and son, Brady, manoeuvre the boat — and themselves — to just the right position to pull the tub off.
All the while the young bear is swimming and the container is filling with water.
As Brady moved the boat up to the bear, Brian gave the tub a pull. He almost had it.
The regroup and on the second pass, the plan works.
And Brian manages to quickly set the bear free.
“We saved our little bear,” Tricia can be heard saying.
“Good job buddy,” a man says off camera.
“Swim happy,” Tricia adds.
The encounter was posted on Facebook where it’s been watched more than 300,000 times, shared thousands of times and drawn applause from all over.
“Never dreamt we would ever do this in our life time,” Tricia wrote along side the almost 2-minute-long video. “Out on Marshmiller Lake yesterday with Brian Hurt and Brady Hurt when we spotted this poor bear. He made it to shore after all that.”
The bear literally swam off into the sunset and hopped onto shore.
Or, as Tricia put it, “This has been a night.”
