A bear was spotted Wednesday afternoon walking around the parking lot at an East Knoxville Cracker Barrel.

Restaurant staff said the bear was spotted in the Cracker Barrel parking lot off of Millertown Pike near Knoxville Center Mall. They said the bear got startled by people getting out of their cars and began jumping on parked vehicles and scratching them, damaging several.

Mckensi Burchell, from Blaine, was at Cracker Barrel when an employee told them to look outside.

“As soon as we looked out the window, the bear was on a 4Runner, then it jumped on top of my car and dented the whole top in,” Burchell said. “What are the chances of this happening?”

Lori Elliott, the woman who took the photo of the bear, said the bear came across the street from the movie theater and climbed on top of a Ford Mustang before climbing the fence and heading towards the tree line and the interstate. 

Animal control officers were seen circling the parking lot of a nearby Lowe’s looking for the bear.

A spokesman for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said wildlife officers thoroughly checked the area. They said the bear appears to have moved on, but they will be monitoring its movements and behaviors.