Contactless food deliveries in the Smokies draw hungry bears, driver warns

SEVIER COUNTY, Tenn. ( WATE ) — As officials in Sevier County urge residents and visitors to be ‘BearWise,’ and a food delivery driver is warning against contactless delivery in the area.

Robert Clark drives for UberEats and Instacart, delivering food and grocery orders. He said many people don’t consider the wildlife in the area when choosing their delivery method.

“I’ve been delivering for Instacart for many years, all the way through the pandemic. And of course, during the pandemic, they started contactless delivery where you leave it on the front porch of the house,” he said.

As a Sevierville resident, Clark is no stranger to the bears, raccoons and other creatures that live in the region. As recent incidents have shown, bears are constantly on the hunt for food.

“We often have situations where large families come to the large cabins and they may be purchasing $1,500 worth of groceries for the weekend, and so it can be a large amount of food that’s being delivered,” Clark said.

He also said often times the food will be delivered while the visitors are out exploring Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge or Sevierville, and the groceries can stay on the front porch long enough for a bear to track it down.

However, efforts to make people more ‘BearWise’ have been targeted at both visitors and permanent residents of the area, who also order food through services like DoorDash and GrubHub.

Clark also said mistakes made while ordering can contribute to the issue.

“We often have this situation that a customer will place the order after they’ve gone back to their home and forget to change their address, and then we’ll be delivering groceries to an empty cabin and not know that no one’s going to be there,” he said.

Some of his past customers have experienced the issue firsthand.

“One time I delivered groceries to a family, and the night before they ordered from Walmart and Walmart delivered the groceries to the wrong cabin,” he said. “By the time they got to the cabin, the bears were on the front porch eating their food, and they were even filming it with their cameras, so the situations can happen many different ways.”

Several bears were euthanized after recent interactions with humans where they exhibited a dangerous comfort level around the humans. Clark hopes this message will help prevent further incidents.

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