Dec. 23 (UPI) — California wildlife officials attempted to lure a bear out from underneath an Altadena man’s home — but ended up catching the wrong bruin.<\/p>\n
Ken Johnson<\/a> discovered in November that<\/a> the animal that had been frequenting his property since at least April was a bear that had moved into the crawlspace under his house, so he turned to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for help.\n<\/p>\n CDFW officials said the state’s bears like to find a comfortable place to create their dens around this time of year.<\/p>\n “Unfortunately, it sounds like this is what that bear has potentially found under the homeowner’s house in the crawlspace,” CDFW representative Cort Klopping told CBS Los Angeles<\/a>. “It’s unfortunate. We want to see the bears in the woods, not in people’s homes.”<\/p>\n CDFW biologists set a metal crate trap on Johnson’s property and baited it with the scents of caramel and cherry. Officials were initially elated when a bear was snared in the trap Dec. 16, but they soon discovered they had the wrong bear.<\/p>\n Instead of the animal living in Johnson’s crawlspace, the trap had ensnared a bear that had simply wandered onto the property, while the crawlspace squatter remained in its den.\n<\/p>\n The captured bear was relocated to a more suitable habitat.<\/p>\n The trespassing bruin, known as Yellow 2120, remains underneath Johnson’s home, officials said.<\/p>\n