Bachelor Nation’s Bekah Martinez is dishing on the moment where she was reported missing after she hit a bear with her car. And no, that is not a typo — that is the actual sentence and that is what ACTUALLY happened believe it or not!
The 26-year-old mom posted an Instagram Story on Tuesday, May 4, where she reposted a viral message about appreciating your car. Bekah revealed she shared a special connection to her own car as she once “accidentally hit a bear” with it. But everyone was reportedly fine — as the bear slid across her car door and ran into the woods.
But wait! There’s more to the story…Bekah went on to reveal how the collision took place while she was briefly living in Humboldt County, Calif. just after filming wrapped for her stint on Arie Luyendyk Jr.‘s season that aired in early 2018. And as she had quit her nanny gigs to film the show, she was in need of money and fast. So, she decided to join a new friend to go work on a weed farm for a few weeks.
The trip didn’t go as well as they liked and within the first week, Bekah’s friend had been asked to leave the farm.
“The girl I was with got kicked off the farm and I had been using her phone to stay in contact with my parents bc it was the only one that had service,” Bekah shared.
“She got mad i wouldn’t leave with her when she got kicked out so she texted my mom that I was being held hostage [by] meth heads with knives and then stopped replying.”
Bekah eventually got cell service and reached out to her parents — who ended up filing the missing report for her on the night before she randomly decided to leave the farm.
“Literally the night they filed the missing report with the sheriffs I couldn’t sleep and was tossing and turning for hours,” Bekah wrote. “and the next morning I got up and told everyone I had to leave immediately (just had a weird feeling) even though I hadn’t been paid yet. when I got to cell service I got an earful (for good reason).”
Thankfully — she did end up getting paid, which helped her pay rent for a few months until The Bachelor started airing, when she was then able to make money from Instagram ads.
But there’s even MORE! Bekah and her parents immediately contacted the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office to take her off the missing-persons list but were only able to leave voicemails…
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Which meant she was never taken off the list, and so a North Coast Journal article published in February 2018—as The Bachelor was airing—reported her as still missing.
“Someone recognized me from the Bachelor and the story BLEW UP,” Bekah continued. “like seriously… blew up. It went international. but the facts were all f–ked up. some people thought I lied to my mom told her I was on a weed farm when I was really on the bachelor??”
This led to a ton of media coverage for her, including time on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“But the actual story was so long and confusing that I just told all the media outlets that I had to go to my friend’s weed farm to ‘get away and relax’ after filming the bachelor and I didn’t have service and so my mom thought I was missing [neutral-face emoji],” she admitted. “so a lot of people thought I was an a–hole for that lol.”
But thankfully — it all worked out. “I’m sorry that my parents had to endure that horrible 24 hours,” Bekah ended the post, “and I definitely never talked to that girl again.”