ALTADENA, Calif. (KABC) — An Altadena man got a big surprise last week when he found a 500-pound bear living underneath his home. Now, the homeowner is facing a serious problem because the stubborn animal won’t leave!
Ken Johnson, a local product photographer, said it all started last Tuesday when he took a look at one of his surveillance cameras and noticed a bear had made his narrow crawl space a den for the winter.
“In June, I walked by there and noticed [the crawl space] had all been torn up,” Johnson told Eyewitness News on Monday. “The bricks had been pulled out, the frame had been ripped up apart, so I put a camera there to see what was doing it.”
He said he had seen a YouTube video of another Altadena resident who had a bear living in its crawl space, so he started to wonder.
“It looked just like my crawl space, so I thought, ‘There’s possibly a way,'” he said. “Next thing I know, my camera picks up a bear crawling out from under the crawl space — and now he’s been in and out all week.”
Johnson said the bear stays right under his kitchen, so he hears the bear moving around.
“I thought he’d be long gone by now. It’s unnerving,” he said. “I think the longer he’s there, the more comfortable he’s going to be, and this won’t end.”
In fact, Johnson said he even came pretty close to the bear when he was trying to change the camera’s batteries.
“I went to replace the batteries, and this huge growl came from underneath the space and scared me to death,” he said. “I couldn’t stop shaking. It’s the strangest sound, too. It’s like a roar, but it’s got this hiss on it too, like a dragon. I mean, it’s just incredible, and coming out from underneath that space, it just reverberates even more… just horrible.”
The bear is famous in this neighborhood along Altadena Drive below the San Gabriel Mountains because it’s been spotted almost every week for over six months. Some residents believe the Eaton Fire destroyed its home, which is why it now roams their neighborhood looking for shelter and food.
“Our neighbors had a bear, and I hear now there’s one across the street. It’s the mountains, and we burned, so they had to go somewhere. They had no place to live,” said neighbor Janet Patton. “Where are they going to go? A nice dark basement is the perfect place.”
The size of this particular bear, which is tagged, is what concerns Johnson. He says he’s working on a plan to draw the bear out of the crawl space, then block the entrance with sandbags.
Johnson said he contacted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), which says it is aware of the situation and will determine the next steps, which could include capturing the bear and transporting it back up to the mountains.
“Keep your distance as much as you can. Make sure that you’re giving the bear enough space to escape. That’s a huge element. Bears don’t want to be around us any more than we want to be around them, and if they feel like they’re cornered, that’s a problem,” said Cort Klopping with CDFW. “If they see an escape route, they’re going to take it. And then you also want to make sure you’re being loud, make yourself big, waving your hands, and slowly backing away.”
CDFW says securing your crawl space, especially during the colder months, is also important.
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