‘I screamed’: Winnipeg woman finds surprise visitor under car hood

Security video captures the moment a bunny jumps from under the hood of Trish Chyborak's car in Winnipeg on Dec. 10, 2025.

One Winnipegger was in for a fluffy surprise when she brought her car to a mechanic, only to discover a visitor had been hitching a lift under her hood.

Trish Chyborak couldn’t figure out why her battery light was on in her car.

“As anybody would do, I did ask the internet, ‘Why is my battery light on?’” she told CTV News.

The answers she got on the internet sounded expensive—commenters assured her it was her alternator or her battery that was causing the problem.

But Chyborak wasn’t so sure. Even though the battery light was on, the car didn’t seem to have any issues. After driving the car for nearly eight hours, she decided to bring it into a shop just to be sure.

When she got to the shop, she and her mechanic brushed off the snow from her car and popped the hood to have a look.

“Out hopped a rabbit,” Chyborak said. “I jumped off to the side. I screamed. The workers in the garage were like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on out there?’ And we both kind of stood there like, ‘What was that?’

“It was a live bunny that had been driving around with me all day.”

Chyborak said she has lots of rabbits around her home, and one decided to jump inside her car and go for a ride.

After the shock wore off, Chyborak said her mechanic showed her the paw prints all over her engine, and some wires the rabbit decided to chew on—prompting the battery light.

She said her mechanic was able to fix the issue, saving her from having to replace the battery and alternator. Chyborak said she made a deal with the mechanic: if he gave her the security video of the bunny jumping from the car, she would make a donation to a charity on his behalf.

As for the bunny, she said she called her mechanic the next day to see if it was still hanging around.

“He said, ‘Yeah, we could see some footsteps, and he’s hopping around the yard,’” she said.

She said the whole situation has left her with a great story for Christmas parties. She jokes—for at least one day, her car was not running on horsepower… it was running on bunny power.