{"id":126184,"date":"2026-01-09T04:51:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T04:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/126184\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T04:51:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T04:51:19","slug":"large-black-bear-finally-evicted-from-southern-california-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/126184\/","title":{"rendered":"Large black bear finally \u2018evicted\u2019 from Southern California home"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 550-pound black bear that had been living under an Altadena man\u2019s home<\/a> for more than a month has finally been removed, thanks to help from a wildlife rescue group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m relieved \u2013 no more banging under the house and smelling him and wondering what\u2019s going on under there,\u201d Ken Johnson, the homeowner, told KTLA\u2019s Jillian Smukler on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Johnson said the bear took up residence in the crawlspace beneath his home just before Thanksgiving, and repeated efforts to coax it out didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

State wildlife officials tried to remove the bear using paintball guns, air horns and other tactics. Johnson said the effort eventually stalled after officials received instructions from Sacramento to pull back.<\/p>\n

After that, he threatened to sue<\/a> the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for negligence and emotional distress.<\/p>\n

\"Altadena<\/p>\n

Video of the black bear emerging from the crawlspace of Ken Johnson\u2019s home on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Ken Johnson)<\/p>\n

\"Altadena<\/p>\n

The electrified mat over the entry to Ken Johnson\u2019s crawlspace in Altadena. Jan. 8, 2025. (KTLA)<\/p>\n

\"Altadena<\/p>\n

The 550 lb. black bear is seen in Ken Johnson\u2019s backyard on Jan. 7, 2025. (Ken Johnson)<\/p>\n

The breakthrough, however, came when the BEAR League<\/a>, a nonprofit based in Lake Tahoe, offered to help at no cost. The team, Johnson said, used similar methods to those employed by state agencies \u2013 paintball guns \u2013 but completed the job in about 10 minutes on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it was so fast,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThese guys went in, they crawled in behind him and, boom, he was out.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the bear returned two nights later to climb back into the crawlspace, it encountered an electrified mat over the opening that gave it a small shock \u2014 so it took off. Only time will tell if it\u2019s gone for good.<\/p>\n

Johnson described the removal as a \u201clate Christmas gift.\u201d He can now assess the damage the bear caused underneath his home, which includes a ruptured gas line.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 550-pound black bear that had been living under an Altadena man\u2019s home for more than a month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29354,7,9,8,44431],"class_list":{"0":"post-126184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-black-bear","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-headlines","11":"tag-california-news","12":"tag-ken-johnson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}