What’s the most dangerous part of your daily routine? You might say being rear-ended by an absentminded driver during rush hour traffic, or maybe your after-work workout at the bouldering gym. But if you live in Churchill, Canada, you’d probably say facing down the largest carnivore on land. In this unique town, migrating polar bears are just part of life.

Churchill is a town in Manitoba, Canada. It has fewer than 1,000 year-round residents. And it’s one of the most remote places on Earth. Want to hoof it to the nearest big town? You’ll be hiking 170 miles south through the tundra. The Minnesota border is 700 miles due south.

The polar bear capital of the world

The town of Churchill does have a healthy tourism industry. Why? To see the yearly polar bear migrations, of course. Churchill is smack-dab in the middle of the peninsula where thousands of polar bears wait for the Hudson Bay to freeze in late October.

No, that’s not a typo. Thousands of these big bois just hang out on the coast until the ice is thick enough to go snack on some ringed seals all winter. And with adult male bears weighing in at 900 lbs, it can be a long wait for the ice to get thick enough. So sometimes they get bored and wander into town.

Churchill has a unique solution to train the bears to stay out of town. Officials tranquilize wayward bears and toss them into polar bear jail. Bears are thrown into their own cell with little human contact and no food. Once the ice sets, they get a helicopter ride out of town. The hope is that this jail “sentence” is unpleasant enough that these specific bears will avoid town next year. And officials reason that a few days of solitary confinement is better than being shot.

The backup plan for a charging bear

Still, it’s not a foolproof system. And bears do wander into town. In a polar bear’s world, anything that moves is edible. Churchill actually built its polar bear jail in response to a 1980s mauling. So what do you do when 900 pounds of hungry bear is sprinting toward you? You get out of the way and lock yourself in the nearest car—whoever it may belong to. That’s why—according to the Toronto Sun—Churchill residents leave their cars unlocked.

Perhaps there’s a slightly higher risk of cars in Churchill getting stolen. But considering that most of the year, there’s no route to drive a stolen car south, that’s probably risk residents are willing to take. It’s better than being eaten by a bear.