'Their Insurance Will Never Believe It:' Woman Spots a Turkey Scratching a Cadillac's Hood. Uh... Now What?

• Cadillac

The video is short and somewhat surreal. We see a wild turkey attacking the hood of a shiny Cadillac, scratching angrily at the black paint with its beak and claws. 

The person who posted it, a Seattle-based woman who goes by @_whodatbee, added a caption, “[Expletive] sis, what did he do?!” She also underlayed her video with the Carrie Underwood song “Before He Cheats,” which is about a woman who destroys a truck in response to infidelity.

It was a recipe for virality, racking up nearly two million views on the app. TikTok users flooded the video with comments, including several people cracking jokes about the Cadillac owner’s insurance.

“Imagine explaining this to the insurance,” a TikToker named Erin Brass wrote.

The video indeed raises a real question for drivers—if a bird damages your car this way, will insurance actually cover it?

Comprehensive Coverage Would Be the Best Bet

The short answer is possibly. Insurance will likely cover an attack from a wild turkey, but only if you have the video evidence as documentation, and what is called “comprehensive insurance.” The part about preserving the video is common sense. How else will anyone know that your scratched-up hood came from a turkey attack?

As for the type of insurance, only comprehensive insurance covers animal incidents, although the emphasis tends to be on things like plowing into a moose. Liability coverage, which is the minimum insurance required in most states, won’t save you from a potential attack from an angry, deranged turkey like the one featured in @_whodatbee’s video. Then there’s what’s known as collision coverage. Collision coverage will only help you if you crash into another vehicle or object. 

But damage from the Hannibal Lecter of turkeys? Or a turkey acting like a jealous lover? You’re going to need comprehensive coverage for that because of its emphasis on damage left behind by animals. And then you’re going to have to plead your case to the insurer. 

The insurance giant Progressive notes on its website that comprehensive insurance covers “accidents with animals” and other non‑collision events, like vandalism or falling objects. Geico, also a major player in the car insurance market, breaks down comprehensive car coverage in a similar way, noting that “hitting an animal” is covered.

Motor1 reached out to @_whodatbee for comment via her email to find out how she captured the footage, and will update this story if she responds. Regarding the intimations of infidelity, some TikTok users played along and claimed to be rooting for the turkey. 

“Whatever he did must have been fowl,” @er1nk114 replied.