![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/db9e2ff0-3182-4be0-b661-99a5fa48a2b2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cIf I kept track of everything I tried, it would be Bear 14, Homeowner 0,\u201d says Ken Johnson\n<\/p>\n
The 225kg bear has been sneaking in and out of a crawl space underneath Ken Johnson\u2019s home in Altadena since before November.<\/p>\n
Mr Johnson says he will sue the California Department of Fish and Wildlife after they said they would no longer help him capture the bear.<\/p>\n
The state agency initially stepped in to try to trap the beast, but instead caught a different, smaller bear. After hauling off the wrong bear, experts tried to use air horns to flush out the persistent lodger. <\/p>\n
Mr Johnson thought the effort was finally working \u2013 but the state suddenly told him to stand down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt very defeated. I just dropped. Now what? It\u2019s all up to me, and I\u2019m supposed to watch my phone when he comes out in the middle of the night? Or sleep in the kitchen and listen for him every night?\u201d Mr Johnson said.<\/p>\n
The agency also reportedly told Mr Johnson that he was no longer allowed to use bait to try to lure the bear out. All he can do is listen to the bear moving around, causing damage to his home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can hear the plastic being shredded underneath, and one of the cameras picked it up just bulldozing through it. It\u2019s a mess under there,\u201d Mr Johnson said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A 225kg bear has been disturbing Mr Johnson since November. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n
Mr Johnson\u2019s surveillance cameras caught a pipe being broken, prompting him to shut off his gas on Christmas Eve. He hasn\u2019t had any hot water since, according to news reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just exhausted from the whole thing,\u201d he said. \u201cI get my mind off it for a little bit, and then suddenly I get flooded back with, oh that\u2019s right, I can\u2019t take a hot shower. I\u2019ve got to monitor the situation all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Johnson says he will sue the department for negligence and emotional distress<\/p>\n
Mr Johnson says he will sue the department for negligence and emotional distress after they stepped back from helping him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has gone on long enough, and it\u2019s something that they should deal with. It\u2019s a tagged bear. They\u2019ve dealt with it before. They chose not to euthanise it, and now it\u2019s back and it\u2019s just going to keep on doing this,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIf I kept track of everything I tried, it would be Bear 14, Homeowner 0.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legal analyst Alison Triessl said the agency has a responsibility to protect homeowners when there was a public safety threat, and that Mr Johnson may have grounds to take the case to court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis homeowner certainly can prove that this bear is causing damage and is a threat to his safety,\u201d Ms Triessl said.<\/p>\n
If Mr Johnson were to take the case to court and win, an order to remove the bear would be likely.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Department of Fish and Wildlife actually has a 19-page policy when it comes to situations just like this, and over and over it says do all that you can to remedy the situation. But nowhere does it say that they should simply give up and have the homeowner deal with it on their own and wait it out,\u201d Ms Triessl said.<\/p>\n
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIf I kept track of everything I tried, it would be Bear 14, Homeowner 0,\u201d says Ken Johnson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,812,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-220560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-usa","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}